Question! To all of you that I respect.

I own and run a motorcycle workshop I see many bikes through the doors, some use oil and some don't, I get asked similar questions often, I'm not in the oil industry so can't get technical with the way oil breaks down in use and why it should burn off from an analyst point of view. But from a mechanical point of view I have reasonable knowledge.
There are many bike models that use some oil, some of the same model don't use any, there are allowable tolerances when manufacturing an engine. Honda Fireblade 06-15 model is known for using oil but not all of them do. BMW boxer engines used to be joked about that they don't settle down and stop using oil until 60k, same with old Guzzi's, Yamaha FZR's, XJ's, FJ's all use oil when used hard but there's not really any consumption when used gently. The VFR750 in my avatar picture uses oil, I don't measure how much but each day of racing I check the oil level, sometimes i need a little top up, not much but then it would have only done maybe 50 miles that day, all be it using full revs
Any engine "can" use oil, I could list loads and if you went on forums and facebook groups I reckon there's at least one on any bike page that has some oil consumption.

VFR's have been made for 32 years, Honda know how to build them, the engine internals are not the latest spec, the latest bore coatings aren't used, they use tried and tested methods proved on an engine that has done many many miles without major problems, I know of lots of VFR's that have gone well over 100,000 miles, Yes at that mileage (and age) they can start to use oil, usually valve stem seals but a bit of oil ring blow by isn't uncommon.

As before my advise would be to use a good semi synthetic oil, something like Silkoline Super4 10/40. it's cheaper if you need top up's too and all the engine requires.

Of course it's entirely up to you what you do with any advise, all anyone like myself can do is try and offer input from experience and hope it helps you resolve your issue or continue to use your bike happily.


I don't think this thread listed the original circumstance of your overheat but as I said I think it's unlikely it would or could cause the oil usage you describe and if it's been running fine ever since that should ease your mind a little.

I guess if you can't get over it though and it constantly plays on your mind the only thing left to do is to move the bike on and get another, bikes should be enjoyed. I have had situations when something isn't right for me for whatever reason, I find if i'm not thinking good things about a bike and my mind keeps coming back to things that bother me I'll move on to something else.


All the best with the bike.


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Interesting read. Change oil to cheaper non-synthetic 10/40. Ride the crap out of it. Part failures can happen at any time.
I bought 2 new tires for one of my RVF's. Did a 2 hr ride on it & on the way home (1/4mile from my house), got a puncture on the rear tyre..
Did it annoy me - yes..
was it a good ride - yes

 

Don't even think twice about it Bubba, just go ride. Run whatever brand of decent oil and change it and the filter regular and don't look back.

 

Popkat-
"I don't think this thread listed the original circumstance of your overheat but as I said I think it's unlikely it would or could cause the oil usage you describe and if it's been running fine ever since that should ease your mind a little."

The cause of the overheating was a failed radiator cap! I only knew there was an issue because of power loss and rev loss. I pulled over and saw that it was at 265-269 as I recall and within seconds it boiled out from the overflow. Hench my annoyance that a cap on a newish bike with under 3 yrs on it and around 5600 miles that this would occur.

Thanks for the advice as always from anyone! Everyone is helping and I appreciate it. It is in the shop getting a new oil change and a new set of T30 evo's on it while it is slow before spring!;-)

 

I understand a tire failure, I had one, but a fricken 3yr old radiator cap being the gist of my annoyance is shitty. Thanks for the advise! I'll move on!;-)

 

It's possible to put a cap on and think it's closed while it's not closed all the way. had you removed cap recently before the over-heating incident ?

 

Yeah, you can accidentally cross thread it onto some bikes tanks.

 

One factor you have not taken into consideration was your altitude at the time. If I remember your original story, you where climbing up a mountain at a pretty good clip. The higher you went, the atmospheric pressure decreased. As pressure decreases, water will boil at a lower temperature. If the cap was bad or cross threaded, the lower pressure at higher altitudes only accelerated your boil over.

 

your fan should have come on at about 220, that should have kept the heat in check, the caps on Honda's are usually rated at 1.1 bar and quite reliable, I'm not surprised that it opened and overflowed at 265.. 260 is about the temp when a 1.1 bar cap will vent, so surely your fan was a problem as the cap seemed to have been doing it's job ?

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Good point, check the fans too.

 

He stated his thermostat failed.
If thermostat doesn't open, no amount of fan will cool the bike.

 

I don't know anything of the original thread about the overheat, my reply was based on post 44 (just a few posts up ^^) where he states the fault was a "failed radiator cap", although this in itself is not a cause of overheat, hence i mentioned the fan.

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No, I think you're right, he mentions the radiator cap.
I think I got posts confused.

 

Nope Never touched it. No need to I had under 6,000 on the bike when it happened. I was basically a new bike to me and it was at the time. That is what was so fricking annoying and aggravating to me!