Howdy. So my GS500 is thirsty for 10w-40! It also has a blue colored smoking habit under hard engine brake down shifts as observed by the folks behind me at the track
One fellow thought we had a 2 stroke in the group it's that bad. It also reeks of burning oil even when I'm whizzing around.
So, I took a look. Let me preface with the PO sold me the bike with what she believed was a slightly leaking head gasket. It might be leaky, it may not be as bad as I think, it may not leak at all. Either way, am I correct in assuming a bad gasket can leak oil into the combustion chamber and be burned away?
I also noticed a leak from the cam chain tensioner. My bike is equipped with a manual tensioner. Not sure what model, the plate is anodized blue and has what looks like a bolt/but sticking out. Anyways, this area was covered in oil with it dripping from the bolt. Is there an oil seal in this area I should look at replacing.
Any help to get my bike to stop drinking and smoking so much is appreciated. I'm concerned for its health and well being.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but sounds like your rings are gone.
Wouldn't surprise me.
Screw it. I'm just going to keep adding oil and ride it until it blows!
But wouldn't bad rings cause blue smoke all the time? It only smokes blue under high RPM downshifts.
How many miles? Sounds fairly normal for GS500....they burn oil.
Quote from: HPP8140 on July 01, 2015, 06:10:16 AM
How many miles? Sounds fairly normal for GS500....they burn oil. My 95 GS500 with over 70k miles also had some blue smoke under hard engine braking.
22k miles
It's definitely using too much though. I shouldn't have had to add nearly 1/2qt after two 20 min track sessions. I can also see it leaking quite a lot from the cam chain tensioner. Is there a seal behind there?
Not sure about the manual tensioner, but the stock has a seal and a gasket. Track with prolonged high rpm will eat the oil...can't tell until you fix your oil leaks though.
There is a seal behind the cam tensioner. That is where my bike used to leak a little oil too. Fix was fairly simple.
Engine breaking creates a vacuum in the chambers which sucks up oil. One of the reasons engine braking should be used while running in an engine.
This will cause smoke when engine braking.
Leaking head gasket might cause oil leak as there are oil channels to the head that run up through the cylinders that could conceivably leak into the chamber.
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There is a cam chain tensioner shaped gasket right behind the tensioner. I have also had a leak from that location and a new gasket solved the problem.
You have an APE brand manual cam chain tensioner.