Forum

[Presto]

How much oil would you guys use to top-up to the mark after fairly hard 200 mile run on iron barrel type Bullet? To put my mind at ease!

[stinkwheel]

Anywhere between nothing and a pint depending on the run, how may hills there were, what the headwind was like, phase of the moon and how long it's been since I changed the piston.

A lot less since I took my high flow oil pumps off and put the standard ones back on. I strongly suspect the oil level in the rocker box was sitting higher than the valve seats. The oil can't get away from the top-end very quickly. You can see this for yourself if you pour some oil into the left side of the rocker area and time how long it takes to drain away next time you have one of the covers off.

[Beezabryan]

I'd agree with that Stinky

[Chris Tindal]

My old 1999 Indian 500 barely used any. I didn't top up at all going to the Wiltshire International, a round trip of 400 miles cruising at 60 on the motorway. In contrast, before it was stripped, my 59 Bighead drank oil. If I topped up to the high mark on the dipstick, by the time I had been to Skipton and back (round trip of 30 miles), it was below minimum when I got home.

[JTL]

Hi all... I have a 500 iron barrel with our hosts High Capacity oil pumps. And there is no problem with oil in the cylinder head. The oil feed pipe is 3 mm ID at engine and 2 x 3 mm at the head. The two push rod channels are both 20+ mm and oil enters the timing side via two 6,5 mm holes and exits the timing side through one 6,5 mm hole. I don't know much the capacity of the scavenge pump is, but maybe we have a mathematician around in the forum who knows and can do the math on this one. In my experience HC pumps only increase oil circulation... Presto, if you have excessive oil comsumption, it might have something to do with your piston rings or a dripping crankcase... regards Jacob

[binary]

I have a 1964 Royal Enfield. I rebuilt the motor and replaced the 4 speed gearbox with a 5 speed. The oil stays half way on the dip stick between changes. I do not run my bike (350) very hard 55 MPH on the road but I do a lot of miles when I do go on a ride. I have been surprised as to how little oil my RE uses. I expected from what I have read about older British styled motorcycles to have to put oil in it all the time. I had a Yamaha that had done over 100,000 miles on the motor and was burning oil like crazy. I lightly honed the bore and put a new set of rings in and the oil consumption went back to normal. I knew that the rings were bad with oiled plugs and exhaust smoke but I was still surprised to see how big a difference a new set of rings made. If you find that your oil burning is from bad rings it is an easy job to replace them in a RE. PS, I did not run the Yamaha until the rings were that bad it was how I bought it for a good price and all I did was change the rings.

[stinkwheel]

I found the choke point for oil egress from the rocker area is actually the gap between the perches for the rocker block. As I say, try pouring some in there next time you have the cover off and see how long it takes to find its way to and down the pushrod tunnels. I'd go with it taking in excess of 20 seconds to drain the rocker box completely when filled to the level of the valve seats. It's pumped in under pressure and leaves by gravity so the relative diameter of the holes it's passing through are not all that relevant. I did dally with relieving this area slightly with a burr but decided it was too much like hard work.



Mine was burning oil almost exclusively on the overrun which is a classic symptom of leaking valve stem oil seals... The 350 doesn't have any, nor is it possible to fit them to the "tuned" head (closest I found were Austin 1100 ones but there's no groove for them to grip onto), it relys on the oil level in the head being below the valve guides to prevent blowpast.



It's worth noting that the standard pistons on Indian bullets are effectively service items. If you give them anything close to a hard time, expect the crown to start to collapse after 10k miles or so and pinch the rings in their lands. This also does nothing for the oil consumption.

[Tim NZ]

The Indian 500 with its OEM piston can be erratic with oil usage.


To generalise; between 1-2cc per Km traveled is not uncommon. Any more than 3cc per Km and I can usually expect to find that the OEM T-slot split skirt piston is compacting down on the rings and is in dire need of replacement.


Alloy barrel and a 'modern' piston with a decent ring pack and you can go a 3000km and use less than 250cc.


IF a motor is prone to wet-sumping oil consumption can be sky high...

[PeteF]

My 2008 350 uses next to none.

[Edward]

MY iron barrel 2005 500 ES would use next to none.