oil burning/ valve stem replacement

[Chuckles]

I have been looking this up and was wondering how much it would cost to get a valve job done?  BIke is burning oil and cannot figure out where it is going.  No burning on start so I figured piston rings are still good.  No smoke or anything.

I got it with 8000 miles year and a half ago? and put 24k on it or so.  It always burned oil since I got it and always put synthetic.  It just got too costly to keep adding.  I think it burns a qt or so every 500 miles.  I think.  Most likely a little less.

Maybe it just wants to turn into a two stroke...

'89 gs. 32k or so on it.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Holy shaZam!.. 32K and no valve adjustments?

They're supposed to be done every 4K.. you could do the job yourself, if you're mechanically inclined at all. If you take it to a stealership, they will rip you off.

[ducati_nolan]

Valve adjustment and a "valve job" are two different things. Hopefully it's had a few valve adjustments in it's life, but I belive you're talking about the valve seats and valve guides. Usually worn valve guides show up as a bit of smoke at start up but little oil consumption while it's running (almost all chevy 350s do this) and it is not too big of a deal. If it dosen't smoke a lot at start up and uses a lot of oil when running, then it's probally the rings. Either way, if you're going to fix it you should at least do new rings and a valve job, if not the lower end as well.

What weight of oil are you using? If you're still using 10w40 it's time to switch to 20w50 and I bet that will help with the consumption. I'm sure it'll be fine to switch to conventional oil too. All synthetic vs conventional oil debates asidde, once you're using that much oil, it's hard to justify the expensive stuff. Just go by some regular car oil 20w50 by the gallon jugs and save some money. Check for leaks too, it's hard to belive that it could actually be burning that much.

Best of luck 

[Jughead]

Your Rings Probably didn't seat all of the way with the Synthetic.What did the Previous Owner use before you bought it in that 8000 miles?Synthetic is bad news on New Motors during Break in.

What Brand are you using now?

[domas]

'89 with 8k miles? I would bet that it was sitting for a long time and piston rings rusted a bit.
+1 on thicker oil, if it wont improve your oil MPG try rings.

[Chuckles]

God knows what oil they were using.  No smoke ever.  I take that back, when I hit redline and then some, it smokes a little, but I have seen new cars do that as well. 

I am sure it sat for quite a long time.

It prety much burned it since I got it, I started with mobil 1, but I swear it like castrol syntec much beter.  When I noticed it was burning, switched to 15w50, then just 20w50.  some people here have reported no necessary valve adjustments using synthetic, and I always used it in my cars.  Now I just use delvac or any other 15w40 diesel oil.

Valves still seem fine, no ticking or other strange noises.  Makes the same power it always has, just more with each jetting.

Chevey 350's were born buring oil.

Yeah, I was thinking new rings and bearings might be needed.

How much of a pain is it to do the rings?  If I don't do bearings, the would I just take off the head?  I just don't have the time to rip apart the motor...  have to do well in school this semester.  Study Study Study.

[Chuckles]

'89 with 8k miles? I would bet that it was sitting for a long time and piston rings rusted a bit.
+1 on thicker oil, if it wont improve your oil MPG try rings.

I am sure it needs new rings anyway and would greatly help.  Cannot be that hard, its only a two cyl.  I am mechanically inclined, though.

[dgyver]

Not hard to replace the rings. The head and cylinder have to be removed. The cylinder will need to be honed for proper seating of the rings. New head and base gaskets are best but some have success using copper coat to reuse the existing ones..

[ducati_nolan]

Yeah, if you want to do the rings without toutching the lower end (bearings, crank etc) you can just pull the head, then the cylinders. You might even be able to do it without taking the engine out of the frame. If you have a large ridge at the top of the cylinder or pitting from rust, you'll have to bore it out and get oversize pistons. If you have very little ridge, then you can just run a hone through it and intall new rings. I'd recomend using slightly oversize compression rings (with a standard oil ring) and then filing them down to the minimum recomended end gap.

Once the head is off, you can take it to a shop and have them grind the valves and it shouldn't cost too much. If you're really cheap you could just lap the valves yourself.

You then need to break the engine in again (there are many different theories on how to do this) but it's important to use regular non synthetic oil for the first few thousand miles.

[dgyver]

The engine can remain in the frame when pulling the head and cylinders.