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|Checking oil procedure

Yorkshirelad - I'm a Norwegian, thanks for helping out building Our first oil installations to be places in the North Sea. The oil made Norway a wealthy nation thanks to the oil and gas industry. We still have oil and gas for a few hundreds of years, and we're still finding more every year.
 

Ive check my oil after i have warmed up the engine it was at full and then ive ride 250 km, i have check te oil immediatelly after my ride it was at the e mark. Strange.

If I wait for the next and making the same procedure when it will be completely cold and warming up the engine will it be again at full ?

I know i can wait tommorrow to know it, but did any of you had the same issue ?
 
You are supposed to wait at least 5 minutes after you turn off engine before you check the oil. The oil need some time to flow back to the oil tank, remember it's a dry sump oil system.
 
rxrider said:
You are supposed to wait at least 5 minutes after you turn off engine before you check the oil. The oil need some time to flow back to the oil tank, remember it's a dry sump oil system.

got it to wait 5 minutes, but still shows at the e mark.
Do we consider normal 700km and 3/4liter of oil ?
my Yamaha delaer told me it is normal even for a 2005, I'm not sure about it.
 
That's about 1 liter every 1000 kilometers. I would not worry much.
Even a superbike MC burns oil when constantly run at high revs, mine did.

Remember E is for Enough not Empty.

If you top it off all the time you will burn oil.
Try filling it half way and see if it burns less oil, it doesn't need to be at the F mark.
 
rxrider said:
That's about 1 liter every 1000 kilometers. I would not worry much.
Even a superbike MC burns oil when constantly run at high revs, mine did.

Remember E is for Enough not Empty.

If you top it off all the time you will burn oil.
Try filling it half way and see if it burns less oil, it doesn't need to be at the F mark.

Great I'll try thisat mid full.
thanks for your help iT's greatly appreciated.
 
Please report back on what you find.
 
As RXRider says let it sit for a few minutes and then check the oil level. I have an 03 and it used to burn oil at a rate of 1 liter per 2500kms. About 7 years ago I started to use Seafoam in the fuel and oil consumption dropped to a few ounces per season. My standard application of Seafoam is half a can in the first tank of fuel and 2-3 ounces for every tank of gas thereafter. As an added benefit I have only had to clean the carbs once in 10 years. 17K kms and running strong......

Paddy...
 
Yorkshirelad,

I have been following the oil consumption of 2003 and 2004 RX-1's on this site and other sites for the past 10 years. I have an 03 RX-1 with about 13,000 miles on it and it consumes oil, almost from the first trip. My RX-1 uses about a quart in 800 miles. Here is a summary of what I have found out over the years:
1. Some 03 and 04 RX-1's consume as much as a quart in 250 miles, others consume a negligible amount.
2. Some 03 and 04 RX-1's respond well to an initial large dose of Yamaha ring-free product followed by a maintenance dose. By respond well I mean the oil consumption decreases. On my enegine it made NO difference.
3. Some 03 and 04 RX-1's respond well to an initial large dose of Seafoam followed by a maintenace dose. On my engine it made NO difference.
4. I have spoken to over 20 Yamaha dealers and factory reps and NONE will admit there was a problem with the rings in the 03 and 04 RX-1's. The fact that some 03 and 04 RX-1's respond to the chemical treatments tells me Yamaha had a problem with the consistency between the sets of rings used in these engines.
5. Yamaha changed the piston rings for the 05 RX-1s/Warriors. If you were going to install new rings, use the 05 part numbers.
6. It has been speculated that the use of gas with a higher octane than 87, which is the specified octane for the RX-1's, that there is a larger amount of carbon buildup in the piston ring lands.
7. If you want to baseline your engine's oil consumption, it is important to measure the oil level the same way every time. I always start the sled and warm it up, make sure it is on level ground (sometimes hard to tell, looks can be achieving), shut the engine off and wait 5 min., unscrew the dipstick, reinsert it without threading it in, pull it read the level. For the past several years we have been only making day trips from a hotel in northern NH so I park the sled in the same spot every time I check the oil.
8. I don't know of anyone who has gone to the trouble and expese of changing the piston rings and reported back that the iol consumption had gone to zero
9. I have tried 0-30W, 10- 30W, 0-40W and 10-40W oil, synthetic and synthetic blends, with no significant difference in oil consumption.
10. Does it annoy me that a 4 stroke engine consumes oil: ABSOLUTELY YES, none of my performance street bikes consume any oil. The big difference between my street bikes and the RX-1 engine is the average operating speed of the engine. Crusing on trails from 40 - 60 MPH with the sled vs the same speed on my street bikes results in the RX-1 engine turning 2X faster than the street bikes engine so the RX-1 engine should consume more oil.
11. Owners of Yamaha personal watercraft have also reported higher than expected oil consumption.
12. You need to figure out what your tolerance is to the oil consumption before you invest the time and money in replacing the rings. Just removing the engine from the sled is a major deal for most people then add in the cost of gaskets, rings, seals ( depending on how many miles are on the engine it might warrant replacing all gaskets and seals, getting the cylinders honed which is not straight forward since they are Nikasil not steel, etc. I have put together a complete parts list and can do all the work myself and concluded that as long as the oil consumption is not worse that 1 quart per 700 miles, I will leave it alone and ride it. (by comparison, my 2000 SRX consumes 1 gallon of 2 stroke oil in 600 miles).
13. I maintain the oil level to the midrange mark. DO NOT overfill it or you may see the oil consumption increase.
14. Since I rarely travel more than 400 miles a day, usually 300 - 325 miles per day, and I have measured my RX-1's oil consumption, I only check the oil level at the beginning of each day. If I were on a saddlebag trip, I would check it at every gas stop. I ty-wrapped a spare o-ring for the dipstick to one of the oil hoses in case I drop the o-ring in the engine compartment while on a trip.


Jim
 
Great info RX1Jim :)

The 03 and 04 rings have been replaced With a New part and is not available anymore.
The 05 RX-1 and 06 Apex and newer have the New rings.

Oil consumption on 1 quart pr 600 miles or 1000 kilometers I would not care to do anything about.
At 1 quart pr 250 Miles or 400 kilometers I would change the rings.
 
Some addition info.:
If an owner of an 03 or 04 RX-1 was going to change the piston rings, you might as well change the 20 valve stem seals on the exhaust and intake valves. It would be one heck of a disappointment to go through all the work only to find the oil consumption did not go down significantly. As long as you are putting the time and money into a major engine job, you might as well replace all the parts that could contribute to oil consumption.

When buying or testing a RX-1, a compression test on an engine which consumes oil, even a significant amount of oil, will probably be within specs.. My engine consistently shows good compression across all 4 cylinders and every time I have tested it over the past 6 years. A leak down test (I just bouth a leak down tester this week) is a MUCH better indicator of the health of the engine. You can also listen to the engine during the test to determine the source of any leaks. I'll report back with the latest results from a compression test and a leak down test of my 03 RX-1.

Happy Trails, ride safe!!

Jim
 
Yorkshirelad said:
Hey guys I took the sled out today for the first good run. Noticed a little squeal noise when stationary but when running no problem. Also after I stopped for a spell the engine warning light was flashing, took the sled home down the road and checked the fluids all OK. When back out for a good 2 hours then when stopped again light came on so I switched machine off for 5 minutes, started back up light was OK. I am thinking the engine is overheating when I idle for a while. Any ideas guys.

Cheers Rob

Running on roads heats up the rx unless there is a ton of snow.
The addition of a rear heat exchanger is a good idea and not expensive
As are ice scratchers for long distance lake running.
M2c

Barry
 
rxrider said:
Great info RX1Jim :)

The 03 and 04 rings have been replaced With a New part and is not available anymore.
The 05 RX-1 and 06 Apex and newer have the New rings.

Oil consumption on 1 quart pr 600 miles or 1000 kilometers I would not care to do anything about.
At 1 quart pr 250 Miles or 400 kilometers I would change the rings.

I am thinking they changed the rings or the supplier if not made by Yamaha themselves in 04 mine does not use a drop and never has. I ride it all winter without having to add any oil. There is certainly a lot more 03's that burn oil then 04's, that is why I am thinking something has changed from the o3 too 04 model. Maybe its not the rings at all but the valves stems, vlaves or something else that has changed and stopped the oil usage.
 
ghost rider said:
Yorkshirelad said:
Hey guys I took the sled out today for the first good run. Noticed a little squeal noise when stationary but when running no problem. Also after I stopped for a spell the engine warning light was flashing, took the sled home down the road and checked the fluids all OK. When back out for a good 2 hours then when stopped again light came on so I switched machine off for 5 minutes, started back up light was OK. I am thinking the engine is overheating when I idle for a while. Any ideas guys.

Cheers Rob

Running on roads heats up the rx unless there is a ton of snow.
The addition of a rear heat exchanger is a good idea and not expensive
As are ice scratchers for long distance lake running.
M2c

Barry

FYI Running on roads without adequate snow will heat up all liguid cooled sleds not just the rx!
 
X2 Sled Dog

My RX-1 did not use oil, but my friends sled did use a lot. He did not care about the break-in, rode it like the 2-strokes, one tank and then WOT. I did it by the book and had no noticeable oil useage. In fact the pistons and rings are in use today in another friends 03 turbo RX-1 and it does not use any noticeable oil either.
The valve stems may be the culprit?
But it will not show up in any compression or leak Down test.
 


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