Hello there,
I bought a beautiful xtz660 '95 with 23,000miles and I have a problem checking the level of the oil. The manual I have says to check the level before staring the engine and if it doesn't reach the MIN to top it up, warm the engine and then check again.
This puzzles me a bit because if I go to work and check the oil at the end of the day, for example when the engine is cool, it is usually OK but if I don't ride the bike for a week it looks like I haven't got oil at all! In this case I don't know if it is the case to top it up or not as I heard that too much oil can damage the engine, is this correct? The other day I had to pour almost a litre of oil for the level to be between MIN and MAX but it the bike keeps spitting it out from the pipe underneath and after a 100miles ride on a motorway at 140Km/h the level was back to below MIN.
Any suggestion? I don't know what to do and I don't want to damage the engine. Is too much oil bad for the bike?
Many thanks in advance.

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... and Nelly The Elephant packed the trunk and said goodbye to the circus...

Hi Alex,

I had exactly the some problems and confusion when my girlfriend and I got our XT600E and XT600Z Tenere.

They were the first dry sump bikes I had had and I eventually decided that the only reliable method of measuring the oil level was to ride the bike for 15 min, let it tick over for 1 min and then turn off the engine and measure with the dip-stick immediately, holding the bike up vertical (not on the side stand, and don’t screw the filler cap back on to take the measurement)

If you need to add more oil you will get another false reading if you don’t run the engine again for 15 min etc.

Also, when you change the oil you need to carefully measure the correct amount, to the nearest 0.1 litres when re-filling, the dip stick will mis-lead you until you have done the 15 mile ride etc.
On our bikes the oil tank wont take the full quantity until the engine is started and the level in the tank drops, an which point the remainder of the measured quantity can be added.

When the engine is stopped after a long ride and the oil is hot some of it leaks back past the part of the oil pump that normally takes the oil from the engine and returns it to the oil tank. This reduces the level in the tank and can take up to 15 min to restore the correct proportions on oil in the engine and tank. It has been suggested by some that if this happens that the pump is excessively worn but it happened just the same on my Tenere when I fitted a new pump.

I would suggest that you check the oil level at the end of a ride and don’t worry about topping it up if it’s below ‘min’ on the dip stick at the start of the day, I wouldn’t even check it then. This is the approach I took and after 83000 miles I had my girlfriends bike engine overhauled and the engineer was astonished at what god condition it was in.

Mark

Hi guys,
first of all, you have to know that some series of XTZ 660 in year production 1994-1996 have manufacture failure and use a lot of oil. Mine luckily is not at that branch. Furthermore, total amount of oil in engine is around 3 lit. and for normal use engine need just 2 lit. of oil. That menas when checking oil, if stick reach oil level ( no matter MIN or MAX ) do not add an oil in engine and you are allowed to ride 500 km out of worry. Then check again and add up to minimum, if requested. I have passed much more than 100.000 km with this bike and always use my system of checking/adding oil. To find out the real condition of your engine, I suggest you following - change oil and filter and fill new oil up to MIN mark. If engine is in good condition, it will not use oil at least 2500-3000 km.
If does use oil before, or even after much less mileage, do rebore cylinder on first oversize and change valve seats. That is not expensive for XTZ 660 and will refresh your engine.
Regards,
AnteK, XTZ 660

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AnteK