Re: [ST] 955 motor

["Jeremy Witt" <jeremyw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well it's a good thing I don't have a manual yet and have stuck to the 3000 (or so) mile intervals!  :0)
 
I'm not seeing any oil burning, but I'm only at 16k miles. 
 
JDW

________________________________

From: st-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Blake Sobiloff
Sent: Thu 3/23/2006 1:28 PM
To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ST] 955 motor



On Mar 23, 2006, at 9:57 AM, triumph1 wrote:
> I believe it should be in the 170ish range.  Oil burning is about a
> quart per 1000 miles.  Power is noticeably down and if you open it up
> everyone behind gets a nice smoke show.

It sounds like your rings are stuck or worn, especially on the 
cylinder with high compression. (Another, less likely possibility is 
that a valve for that cylinder isn't sealing well.) High compression 
usually means the combustion chamber has a bunch of carbon in it. The 
carbon comes from too much oil getting into chamber, and/or gas 
without effective detergents. The carbon is easy enough to clean off 
with SeaFoam or even distilled water dribbled through an intake 
vacuum line. (A pretty good description of the process is at <http:// 
www.vectorbd.com/peugeot/archive/General/2005/Jun/0262.html>.)

This would clean up the combustion chambers, but it wouldn't solve 
the problem that's letting oil into the chamber. There's a good oil-
based cleaner called Cycle-RX <http://www.cycle-rx.com/> that I've 
used to clean up several motors. It won't fix worn or broken metal, 
but it will clean up carboned or sludged surfaces and resurrect 
engines folks would otherwise write off.

If you were willing to spend $30 and an afternoon to clean up your 
combustion chambers you might be able to rescue your engine (or 
confirm that there's a mechanical problem).

Also, I strongly believe that 6,000 mile oil change intervals are far 
too long, even using synthetic oil. The high RPMs and transmission 
gears really tear up the oil, reducing its viscosity and its ability 
to protect. I think that this is why you see a lot of 955 Triumphs 
start to use some oil around 40K miles. Triumph set an extended oil 
change interval to make the maintenance schedule competitive with 
other brands, but IMHO to the detriment of engine longevity. It's not 
an issue for the majority of owners who only put a few thousand miles 
a year on their bikes, but high mileage folks would greatly benefit 
from reducing their oil change intervals to 2,000 or 3,000 miles.
--
Blake Sobiloff <sobiloff@xxxxxxxxx>
<http://sobiloff.typepad.com/>
San Jose, CA  (USA)


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