Burning new oil.

[TreeFiddy]

Sorry I know there must be 50 million oil questions on here,  but I have a specific question.

I've got a new (old) 1990 GS500E and I've recently changed the oil, but I'm not desirable results.

I am the third owner.
The first was an old bloke, who, apparently was very meticulous in his care of the bike. It was broken in on dino oil, and after a few thousand K's it was put on synthetic.

The second owners clocked up about 30,000K's in the year she owned it. Yes, it was a middle aged woman, who has since gone on to buy a cruiser as it suits her riding style better.
The husband was a Goldwing nut and took good care of the Suzuki too.

The bike has done 56,000KM or about 35,000 Miles. Most done in the country (20 or 30 clicks into town)

Now, onto the problem.

I couldn't remember what brand of oil they were putting into the GS, Penzoil or Penrite... something like that.
Anyway, I couldn't find any of them in my area (regional) so I bought Fuchs 4T Comp-4
Silkolene Motorcycle oil. It was about $55 for 4 litres (we get ripped for everything in Australia).
The only other fully synthetic motorcycle oil I could find was in the dealers, for about $90. Motul I think. Whats that, like US$85? pretty expensive huh....

Anyway, I did an oil/filter change (and made sure it was top of the dipstick after a short ride).
After 500K's the oil was halfway down to E. Strange I though, must just be getting used to it, it will get better soon.

I did about 200K's yesterday, in a place I've never been before (wished I hadn't).
Horrible bumpy poorly maintained narrow twisty roads with poor signage.

Quite frustrating. When I have the money I will get some progressive springs, because I went over a few unavoidable bumps and the suspension bottomed out and smacked me in the gonads. 

Anyway I got back, checked the oil and it had burned 3/4 of the dipstick. I had filled it to F before I left, now it's almost at E. The nature of my riding probably didn't help. Rough.

What the hell!

Should I change the oil to something else ASAP, use the rest of the bottle, or keep using it and hope that it settles down.

Sorry for the long post, hope someone can share some insight. 

Thanks

[Roadstergal]

Two questions.

Is your 'before' oil check done as per spec, by warming the engine up fully, letting it sit for a few minutes, and checking it with the bike straight-up-and-down?

Have you checked the exterior of the engine for oil leaks?

[The Buddha]

Hey R'gal,
How you been.
I am now "the buddha" ... yea, lame.
Cool.
Buddha.

[Roadstergal]

When I first saw the forum, I thought, 'where's S****h?'  :p  How you been? <--------------------Incognito ... shhhhh

I got another GS500.  :p  Got a job in the Bay Area, got married, etc.  Good times.

[The Buddha]

When I first saw the forum, I thought, 'where's S****h?'  :p  How you been? <--------------------Incognito ... shhhhh

I got another GS500.  :p  Got a job in the Bay Area, got married, etc.  Good times.

... but bay area ... why ... were they out of room in hell ... come on, waiting list for hell is better ... oh, waiting list had a wiating list ... OK then ...
Cool.
Buddha.

[Roadstergal]

   I have a feeling there's a story here I'm missing.

Hey, Purgatory is the waiting list for hell!

OK, let's leave this thread to this guy's oil issue and mess up my own thread with chatter.

[The Buddha]

I used to live in BA, and I hated it. I might actually be the worst place in life to try and start out life, too bad, I had no clue and I lived there for 7 of the freaking longest years of my life. I moved to charlotte in 02 and by 03 I had bought a house and was really living it up ... 
Cool.
Buddha.

[Pigeonroost]

To the DownUnder oil burner;

Get a pard to ride behind ya as you ride.  Do some spirited accels and decels as the follower looks for the blue smoke on either or both.  Rings or valve guides, ya know.  I am new to this bike so I am not sure of how bad they can be to draw oil through the crank case breather.  I doubt your oil is bad or incompatible, you should be able to switch from dino to synthetic as will.  At the costs you face, I would use fleet oil (equipment oil such as Rotella or Delo or Delvac) good stuff without the boutique price.

Like an early poster suggested, are ya sure you are filling and checking that level by the book?

prs

[the mole]

Treefiddy, where are you?
If its not leaking oil, its burning it. Try a compression test and note the pressures on each cylinder. If either one is low, try pouring about a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder and checking again. If the compression improves significantly, the problem is piston rings, if not its valve guides.
Good luck, David.

[TreeFiddy]

Northern VIC mate Shepparton
It's cold and miserable at the moment.

Yeah I'm checking it while it's on the centre stand. It was still hot when I filled it the first time.
When I got back from the 200km trip it was still warm, after I had gone inside taken my gear off and got myself a drink.

I'll get dad to follow me friday/sat to see if she's blowing smoke, should give the old Tiger a run for its money too

Unfortunately I don't have a gauge for the compression test, I'll have to get one when I go into town.

Glad you guys could catch up 

Thanks,

Sam.

[yamahonkawazuki]

I was going to ask you how long it was since you shut her down, before you checked it. EG after the ride, but youve seemed to answer that. id say top it off, then have pops or whomever follow you, and see what it looks and or smells like

[ohgood]

Are you checking the oil level correctly each time ?

(Park on center stand, pull dipstick, wipe, replace WITHOUT SCREWING IT IN, pull,  THEN check level)

If you're not doing it on the centerstand or balanced, you're getting a bad reading.

With 30,000 miles, you're starting into the oil consuming portion of a gs's life. Yes, the top end is worn. No, you absolutely should NOT be using anything that costs $50-80 for an oil change.

She'll run just fine on the cheapest 10w40 you can find. I promise. Well, unless you need to run a heavier weight because of your Aussie climate.

GS500 = cheap bike to run, fun bike to ride, all you need are a few decent roads and some oil that doesn't cost you a small fortune.

[TreeFiddy]

It's actually quite cold at the moment (as long as you're not from England. In your case, think summer )

I am checking it properly, no worries there.

The only problem is, the $55 oil I bought is the cheapest motorcycle synthetic I could find.

Can you order oil through the internet/mail? or is it a hazardous material?

My other option would be changing it back to plain old mineral oil. What are the pro's and con's to this?
I bought some cheap Valvoline oil for my TT250 a while ago, seems to run ok and no clutch problems (car oil).
Best of all it only cost me $15

We get ripped off for everything in Australia.
You know those new Pontiac G8's or whatever you call them... US$32,000.
You know what we pay for them?

US$51,000
And they're made here!

/rant

[Pigeonroost]

10-40 Valvoline is fine.  Auto oil is fine so long as not Energy Conserving (heavily doped with Moly).

prs

[galahs]

If your burning heaps of oil you may want to try a heavier weight oil such as:

10w-50
10w-60
20w-50
15w-60