I'm currently in San Bartolo, Peru, 40 miles south of Lima. I have been traveling for 14 months and have put over 18,000 miles on this trip thus far. I am on a 2000 KLR with about 30,000 miles on it.

Prior to the rebuild, the bike was consuming (normal) about 1 quart to every 2000 miles. Gradually, on this trip, the bike started consuming more and more. By the time I reached Colombia, I noticed that I was burning roughly at a rate of 1 quart to every 500 miles. In Medellin, where there are plenty of motorcycles big and small with suitable mechanics, I decided this was the best place to address the issue before I continued south.

After taking the bike apart, we discovered that part of the piston broke off between the rings or ring grooves (see attached), and determined this was the root cause of the problem; where the oil was leaking through. After further inspection, the reason for the piston to fail (supposedly) turned out to be overheating due to a factory defective (clogged - also attached) radiator reserve tank and malfunctioning water pump. Although, the bike never really ran excessively hot nor did the temperature gauge ever read very high.

The cylinder was then bored/honed out to accommodate a slightly larger piston and everything was replaced with genuine OEM Kawasaki parts e.g. piston, rings, valve seals, all gaskets. I decided to go with OEM instead of Schnitz's 685 kit due to time constraints, available resources, my bad experience with shipping parts abroad, and the possibility that something might happen again on the road and having to be solely dependent on Schnitz for replacement parts. Furthermore, the OEM parts were all for a 2008 model KLR, which I was assured several times over would work fine for my 2000.

To break in the engine, I did an overnight trip to El Peñol de Guatape, about 200 miles roundtrip. I didn't do anything extravagant or ride the bike too hard, because there was a lot of city driving before I could get onto the highways. The bike performed well and I could sense a slight increase in power initially.

Everything was fine after I left Medellin, until I reached the border of Ecuador, some 1000 miles after the rebuild. Especially at high altitudes, the bike once more began to consume an incredible amount of oil. At 3000-4000 meters (~12k ft), not only did I have a significant drop in power, but I started to notice that my exhaust was staining my saddle bags and rear fairings black. In Quito, I decided not to re-jet the carbs just yet as I was going back to sea level soon, and would be riding along to coast through Peru. I wanted to eliminate the presumption that it was just the higher altitudes that was causing the bike to consume more oil.

Now in San Bartolo, roughly 2500 miles after the engine rebuild, I am worse off than before. I am painfully burning oil at a rate of 1 quart to every 200 miles (it's worst than riding a two stroke and gas is so expensive as is let along having to put in 1/2 a quart of oil every time I fill up.) Unfortunately, I am even more pressed for time as my brother is visiting for Christmas: I've secured a bike for him to ride alongside me for 3 weeks as he did last year with me through Mexico, and this will be my last opportunity to make it to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego for 'summer' before it gets too cold.

There are even fewer bikes in Peru than in Ecuador and next to none in comparison to Colombia. I am running out of options as I make my way further south. I was hoping that the bike would make it at least through the next 3 weeks and beyond to Santiago, Chile, where I could address the issue with more patients. However, after my recent stint in the desert with sand storms/tornados, ginormous dung beetles, etc., where I was stranded for 3 days in Northern Peru with limited food and water along with a stomach bug - not engine related breakdown mind you, but a completely different story; I'd rather not take my chances with something happening in the even more barren landscapes of Bolivia and Chile.

So, tomorrow I am taking the bike to a 'reputable' mechanic in Lima to preform a compression and leak-down test. And then go from there...

Questions:

1) The bike isn't leaking oil from any of the gaskets and the only noticeable difference after the rebuild is the exhaust being black (I can't tell if it's blue while I'm riding), what are some other causes for the discoloration of the exhaust?
2) Could the mechanics in Medellin have messed up the rebuild?
3) Did I mess up the rebuild by not 'breaking-in' the engine correctly?
4) Could the rings or valves seals wear this quickly?
5) Are the 2008 KLR parts really not suitable for a 2000 model?
6) Any other suggestions, comments, advice?...

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this thread.

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__________________
Victor S Baron

2000 Kawasaki KLR 650
http://www.dondeestavictor.com