High Mileage
 

Just bought a high mileage 2003 XT600E with 32,000 miles it runs very well with a very quiet engine, very pleased in general however when starting from stone cold after no use for a few days it smokes for a few seconds as it warms up. It is smoke not water vapour, there is a strong smell of burning oil until it warms up then there is no trace of smoke or smell. It pulls well sounds sweet and the oil level hasn't dropped in 100 miles. The oil level was / is just above maximum mark on the dip stick. There is no history with the bike, my next job this weekend is to change the oil and filter, I have a new K&N performance oil filter and new Castrol high performance SEA 10/40W oil. I'm guessing it could be valve stem oil seals which could be letting it the oil by, are they easy to change, is it an engine out job? Any thoughts guys.

No need to take motor out
 

Paul,
No need to take the engine out, download the manual on this site and have a read. You can replace the Piston and rings with the motor inthe frame if you want. If you are doing the valve stem seals, dont forget the Bastard bolt in the middle of the rocker cover.

Cheers from Oz.
Chucky

To replace the valve stem oil seals the head has to come off & the valves need taking out to get to the seals. Whilst you have the head off you can inspect the bore for wear/marks & if needed a hone with new rings.

If its scored up you may need to re-bore & go with an oversize piston.

Most top end gasket kits come with oil stem seals as part of the kit, but double check to make sure before buying. Also check your seats & valve faces for wear, you may get away with simply lapping them in.

Mezo.

I wouldn't say 33,000 miles is particularly high mileage for an XT6. doh

I have heard of an original OEM XT6 engine lasting 100,000 and beyond (with rebore and oversize piston rings). I know a mate whose bike has done 60,000 (1995 model) and as far as I'm aware, it's on it's original OEM engine. It still purrs...

I'm no expert when it comes to mechanics so I will leave it to the likes of Mezo and others to advise you regarding this part of your question.

Oh yes, welcome to the best XT forum in the world. Why not hang around and help others? :innocent:

All the very best. :thumbup1:

Thanks for the advice I'll certainly be down loading the manual for a read. The bike hasn't had a lot of TLC in its life I intend to change that as I'm really enjoy ridding it having spent the last 30yrs on sports bikes. Changed oil and filter today using fully synthetic Castrol GPS 10/40W

Mines at 116.000km all stock, no oiluse.

I bet its just overfilled with oil, they are hard to read the oil-level correctly.

+1 on that Jens, very common mistake, make sure you check the oil with the bike level.

Mezo.

The oil level is a worry as the manual states 2.8ltrs of oil for oil change and filter which I measured carefully but on checking the level it did not touch the dip stick so added another 200ml. The bike bike have been slightly pointing up hill by a few degrees when I checked it after warming the engine. I'll re-check it today.

Drain thoose 200ml anyway, and I'll bet it will be fine after a few days.

I cant read the oillevel correctly on mine unless I've had a lot of fun first. Putting around doesnt do it.

Theres a drainhose for the airbox around the Cs sprocket, you should see a hose coming from the airbox with a little removable plug in the end. Remove the plug do drain some of that overfilled oil which might have breathed into the airbox.

That's amusing - this forum, Yamaha Tech, also covers such bikes as the XT225 (wet sump), TTR600 (dry sump and a bit of a bitch to check the oil level correctly), and the XJ900 (wet sump, shaft drive), all of which I have owned, or still do own.
Then there's the TT600RE (dry sump?), XT500 etc which I haven't owned.

Still, it does seem to be a good place to discuss the XT600 (dry or wet sump?), so I'll get out of here now :innocent:

Right what do you make of this?
I've just measure the amount of oil drained out it measures 4.3ltrs before draining out the level was just below the max mark on the dip stick after warming the engine with the dip stick place not screwed into the kneck. The owners manual that I have down-loaded states 3.3ltrs on a dry tank / engine and 2.8ltrs when changing the oil and filter. I've put in 3ltrs of oil and I've just check it again tonight with a stone cold engine with the bike level and held up-right and there is no trace of oil on the dip stick. Confused....

"Idle the engine more than 10 seconds whilst keeping the motorcycle upright. Then stop the engine and add the oil to the maximum level".

I think the key point is to run the engine to get the oil circulated (and pumped into the top of the frame where you read the level). If you've got enough battery-power you could run it for a few seconds on the starter-motor alone, by leaving the choke off, to prime the oilways (like they used to do [and possibly still do] with race-engines such as Cosworths).

If you've added 3 litres of oil to a dry(ish) engine then you'll know that you'll have enough in there to run the engine. I wouldn't have thought that 200ml either way would be enough to do any harm, but if there's way too much then you might find that some escapes into the bottom of the airbox.

After that, you should probably do an oil-pressure inspection. If all seems well, then you can heat the engine to 60 degrees Celsius, giving it some revs along the way, in order to get the oil pumped around nicely for a final reading and possibly a (small) adjustment.

After that, all being well you should be able to give it a short test-run to get the oil pressured-up nicely (as Jens suggests) and then back home to check it. Note that the manual maintains that the oil-level ought to be read for an oil-temperature of around 60 degrees Celsius, so bear that in mind if you bring it back 'hot'. I would add that it should 'stabilise' (engine cut) for a couple of minutes or so, as well.

By the way, how well did you drain the old oil? I can well imagine that you could get quite close to re-establishing that 'dry' 3.3-litres capacity if you've left it draining / tilted the bike to get more out - and well done if you did do that.

Just thought... You haven't spotted an added oil-cooler, have you?

Normal, just ride the damn thing :thumbup1:

My thoughts exactly, there's nowt wrong with yer bike....

OH & 35,000 is definitely not high mileage for one of these...

I think I'm right in saying that this sub-forum was ORIGINALLY just the Yamaha XT600 forum? The sub-forum heading on the main page even says this if you look.

It's a great shame so many odd people out there are so easily offended by mere words that express an alternative opinion... It's destroying our hard earned freedom of speech and thought in the West. I despair sometimes how people get so easily offended/insulted by factual statements. doh

Also If you take the time to have a closer look at this sub-forum, you will see that 90% of posts here concern the venerable XT600 series of trail/adventure Yamaha bikes.

Of course This doesn't mean other makes of Yamaha's can't be discussed too. The XT600 sub-forum has over time "morphed" into the Yamaha forum and this is a welcome development indeed in my view. :thumbup1:

My welcome to the XT forum still stands because that's what I know it as myself. :clap:

Classic symptoms of dodgy valve stem seals. My 88 bike was exactly the same. From cold, 10 seconds of smoke then no smoke at all and very little oil usage. Depending on your level of competance with the spanners, a relatively easy fix. no need to take the engine out, but you will need a valve spring compressor.

Thanks for the advice, I'm glad I'm not alone with reading the oil levels, yes I do intend to get out there and enjoy trouble free ridding, the bike is new to me I intend to keep it so just making sure all is well.
Thanks again

Thanks Timus I'll see what happens after a few more rides, yes I do have a good workshop

I thought you said it was high mileage ???? PAH !! :rofl:

anyway.

Smoke on start up is most likely stem seals.

If it smoked all the time I'd be thinking it was the rings.

Done a compression test ??

More likely to be oil draining down into the sump overnight, once the engine is started it's then pumped back to the tank....

What, you think that is causing the smoking on start up?

Surely if there was a way for oil to get up past the rings it would smoke all the time?

usually....

But, the rings and piston do expand a little when they're hot.

I'm still going to valve seals.

It's an easy job on this engine too. It's the first logical thing to try.

Valve stem seals shouldnt be bad after such "short" time. It sounds a lot like a classic overfilled bike, which you seem to have veryfied yourself. Poor in the right amount of ail, drain/clean the airfilterbox and see if that doesnt help, if not, take it from there.

I cant read a full oillevel when my oil is 60C, especially not with theese cold temps, a good run on the highway usually does it. I've had my bike for around 4 years, and have driven around 65.000km on it, and everytime I try to top of the oil 'cause it seems low, I end up overfilling it. They are a PITA tocheck the oil on, mine doesnt use any, but with 116.000km on it I get nervous and check it often, but usually it reads low, eventho' the correct amount of oil is in it.

I had an 87 XT600...

It did EXACTLY the same thing when I bought it.

Depending on how the valves rested when I turned off the engine, occasionally oil would weep through the seal and into the cylinder. Some days it didn't do it as the valve was completely shut (lucky).

I changed the seals and it sorted it....

You've only got four valves in there and the seals aren't too expensive. It's a simple job. And at that mileage it should be something you should of been considering changing anyway.



If it was the rings, it would most likely be smoking all the time. If it was overfilled, the crankcase breather (if you have one) may be spitting oil.

I agree with Ted.
My 88 bike did the same thing, til I changed the valve stem seals.

Never had any issues with oil level.

It's definitely hard to get a consistent oil level reading, more so when draining/refilling. Each bike seems to be different, but for mine I get a consistent reading by

1. Ride until fully warmed up, at least 10 minutes
2. Let it idle for 10 sec or so
3. Wait about 3-4 minutes for the oil to settle
4. Check level with bike upright

This is most easily done when stopping for fuel. Fill the bike, go and pay, and check the oil level when you get back. I keep a bit of kitchen roll handy somewhere for wiping the dipstick.

Until I learned to trust this method, I have previously drained out around 3 litres and then refilled with a whole 4 litre can, and still had nothing on the dipstick. Of course, it all went in the airbox until I drained it out and started again.

With the above method, I have had a completely consistent reading for the last 15k miles - it drops about 5mm between oil changes. I'm happy with that.