What is acceptable oil consumption --- 81' GS850G

[Joe H]

On my 1150 I broke it in nice and slow with the first set of new rings and 1229 pistons, burned oil, and the #2 cylinder never sealed, bad compression, and would have an oily plug after a 1000 miles or so, it would burn a bit more than 1/2qt in 2000 miles or so.
And now with the 1260 pistons, new rings and new bore, I broke it in HARD.
It burns little to no oil, I do change it often, 2000 miles or so, I have never had to add any oil between changes.
Could be many reasons, just my experience.
And breaking it in hard does not mean revving it to the moon, just varied rpm and some hard acceleration and change the oil right away.

[Grimly]

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I have used this method on several engines (both automotive and motorcycle) that I have built. It works great. The factory break-in procedures are intentionally very conservative. You are highly likely to get lower performance following the factory instructions.

Indeed. There was a spate of oil-burning VWs in the 90s and 00s caused by people being too easy with break-in. All the ones I knew that had been broken-in with a bit of verve never gave any trouble afterwards. The aforementioned 1L (or quart) per 1000 miles was the typical consumption of a babied engine and the more robustly broken-in ones had a consumption of nearly nil. VW wouldn't do anything to rectify the oil burners as, according to them, that consumption was 'reasonable'. Well, it was reasonable in the 70s, sure.

[Mr.Mom]

Just changed to Mobile 15w/50 and the burn went from 1qt. every 300 miles to almost nil,wow...? Fingers crossed, lol.

[Brendan W]

Just changed to Mobile 15w/50 and the burn went from 1qt. every 300 miles to almost nil,wow...? Fingers crossed, lol.

Any change in fuel burn ?

[tkent02]

Just changed to Mobile 15w/50 and the burn went from 1qt. every 300 miles to almost nil,wow...? Fingers crossed, lol.

What oil was in it before?

[Mr.Mom]

I was using Shell T6 5w/40. Fuel economy seems to have improved a little, but I haven't finished off a tank yet.

[Grimly]

I was using Shell T6 5w/40. Fuel economy seems to have improved a little, but I haven't finished off a tank yet.

I was using 5W/40 during the winter, which really helped cold clutch grab, but it was burning a little bit more than normal, although that didn't come as any great surprise. It certainly revved more freely, though; but the oil went off at around 1700 miles - the transmission got slightly notchy, like it always does when the oil is getting to the end of its life.

This summer I've been using 10W/50, with no downside so far.

[Boriqua]

Glad I found this thread. I just had to add some oil to my bike and I was worried it was maybe to much. Having said that .. I am losing a little bit of oil around the valve cover gasket in spots. Nothing major but after a few miles there is a light glaze of oil. I did the valves as instructed back when I started and installed a new gasket and now I am afraid of snugging it down any more on the aluminum heads. Sounded like using a torque wrench on those bolts was a bad idea from my reading and I dont trust my calibrated fingers. May give them another go when I take the tank off again.

after about 1500 miles I had to add 3 ounces of oil. Guess I should be happy!

[Steve]

Just changed to Mobile 15w/50 and the burn went from 1qt. every 300 miles to almost nil,wow...? Fingers crossed, lol.

Any change in fuel burn ?

I was using Shell T6 5w/40. Fuel economy seems to have improved a little, but I haven't finished off a tank yet.

Your '82 850L has a 4.5 gallon tank, you should go from FULL to REServe in about 150 miles. If you haven't "finished off a tank yet", I would say you have not gone much over that 150-mile mark.
Unless you have a cloud of blue smoke behind you that would make the mosquito abatement department proud, how are you going to say that consumption is almost nil?

Never mind, I looked at your statement again, you were using about half a quart in that amount to time, so it could, indeed, seem like "nil".

.