Burning Oil

[w108rna]

I have a 900ss along with my Monster, and it is causing me to worry.

It is a Carb model and seems to be burning oil. If i accellarate and then back of the throttle from about 6000rpm, it sometimes decides to blow blue'ish smoke from the exhausts that you can spot in the rear view mirrors. It also does the same on some hard accellaration. It is not a constant problem, but will do it for a while, then stop and won't do it again for a while.

Is this something to be worried about???

[alreadyinuse]

How many miles has it done? cos if your rings are worn it will smoke.

Is the right weight of oil in it? too thin and it'll get past the rings.

[w108rna]

The engine has covered just shy of 17,000 miles. It is currently running on 10w40 Oil as recommended by a garage when i had my 900 Monster serviced.

[barbican]

If you cant hear any piston slap, and engine isn't rough or showing signs of broken rings I suppose it could be valve guides, not sure if Ducati use seals or not. If it's been ridden very very gently for most of its life the bores might be glazed........

but 17k isn't a lot of miles to get any of this sort of thing.


so simple stuff first

Is the oil level correct, ie not overfilled?
is the cranckcase breather clear?
How long ago was the oil and filter changed?
Have you got the correct grade of fresh sparkyplugs in there?

Good luck

[w108rna]

I've only had the bike for 3 months, so i've no idea about its previous life. The discreet little sticket on the back suggests it may have been round the 'ring' once in its life? But i have no idea how it has been ridden or treated upto this point in its life.

It does have a nice service history, and appears to have been looked after fairly well, so hopefully its not been abused too much. It rides well, starts well, accellarates well etc etc, nothing seems drastically wrong from the outside?

It may be easier to take it to my local specialist and let them have a good look at it?

[alreadyinuse]

comperssion test will tell you for sure

[Pedro]

More likely to be the valve guide oil seals that are knackered rather than the rings - they harden with age and leak like a bugger, particularly on the over run.

It is possible to change them without stripping the heads but it's a bit of a bugger to do.

At 17k miles it's possible that you'll get a decent reading on a compression test as it maybe just the oil scraper ring (3rd from the top of the piston) that's worn - my 900 at 23k miles had no edges left on the oil scraper ring (and knackered valve guide seals...) and puffed smoke on the overrun

Ped

[w108rna]

Thanks for all the comments folks. I took the bike out again this evening and it is still smoking, although it is easier to pinpoint now. When driven sensible and nicely, it behaves well with no smoke. As soon as you open her up and then back off the throttle, it starts smoking like a 2 stroke!

I have got the bike booked in a 'TecMoto' for an MOT, so i have pre-warned them and asked if they can investigate the problem.