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Camheads use oil? 2012 R1200RT

My 06 RT lives most of its live on the side stand. I never have seen any oil consumption. In looking closely at the sump I notice that the bottom of the cylinders are above the oil level in a properly filled crankcase.
 
is that from oil seeping past the piston rings while it's angled that way?

Yes. It also depends on just where the ring gap is, and it does stop in different position from ride to ride, so sometimes you may barely see a puff on startup, and another time your neighbors will think you're spraying for mosquito control. Of course, length of time left in that position is also important. Ride every day you may never see smoke. Park it for two weeks while away on vacation and when you return home and start it up you may think something broke while you were away.
 
2012 GS/A with 12,000 miles. The bike consumed nearly 2 quarts between the 6k and 12k services, close to 3 quarts between the 600 and 6k services.

So I guess it's getting better.
 
oil thread

all this talk about 20W50,I thinks my manual says to use 10W40,I think the idea is to get oil to the heads,
 
2012 GS/A with 12,000 miles. The bike consumed nearly 2 quarts between the 6k and 12k services, close to 3 quarts between the 600 and 6k services.

So I guess it's getting better.

It's puzzling to me why some new camheads consume very little oil and yet others appear to guzzle it like they're on a college drinking binge. ? ?
 
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It's puzzling to me why some new camheads consume very little oil and yet others appear to guzzle it like they're on a college drinking binge. ? ?

maybe a random combination of poor break in techniques and slightly better fitting rings on some bikes than others? who knows? :scratch
 
Riding like you stole it or slow and easy. No one has mentioned the other variable of quick vs slow throttle chops. I would say I accelerate like I stole it but I am more gentle with the throttle when decreasing to slow down. I maybe wrong but I believe the rings are better suited for the forces of accelerating vs. engine braking. Since 600 miles service on my 2011 GSA I am not burning any oil to speak of with over 7000 miles now.
 
The wide variance of oil consumption makes me suspicious that it's something more than just a difference in break-in technique, but I may be wrong ... not sure what it is, but something isn't right. I'm thinking of creating a poll of camheads and their oil consumption.
 
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2010 RT - 1/2 qt in first 600 miles, 1 qt (dino) in next 5400 miles, 3/4 qt (synth) in next 6000 miles. Seems reasonable to me. I'm not far enough past the 12,000 mile mark to say if it's tapering off or not.
 
Piston rings or valve seals

I tend to read all the posts on this particular forum. Call me nuts but I like reading ego battles between members and questions raised by people who have made no attempt to read their owners manual.

One thing I don't believe ive ever come across reading all the "oil consumption" threads is why the boxer uses oil. Some people say piston rings and others say valve seals. My boxer went through a phase where I burned up to 1/2 quart per 1000 miles. Around 12000 miles it abruptly slowed to nearly a stop.

I've occasionally come to a stop sign after a hard ride and smelled just a whiff of burning oil. That makes me think piston rings. The traditional inline motor is more condusive to valve seal issues. Oil pooling over the valve seals over night, gradually leaking into the combustion chamber, then burning at start up. To me, the layout of the boxer wouldn't cause oil to pool at the seals. My logic says it ouldnt matter how your bike is parked because oil will not pool at the seals. However my logic isn't always correct.

Has anyone got an official answer from BMW?

Joel
 
Maybe a reminder or clarification is required.
Every piston driven combustion engine uses oil !

The question is simply which amount is excessive.
 
"Every piston driven combustion engine uses oil."

Well, yes, I suppose so but the amount can be miniscule... or not. A few years ago I rode my Honda ST1300 4,500 miles from coast to coast, mountains and plains, twisties and 4-lanes, temperatures ranging from 35 to 106F. Total oil consumption: about 2 ounces of oil. My 2011 RT has 8,000 miles on it and oil consumption has finally dropped to about a quart in 800 miles. Excessive? Maybe not by boxer standards but that must be about the worst in the industry.

Not complainin' - just sayin'

pete
 
No issues at all with your statement there Pete.

I just wanted to make sure that Users understand that oil usage (even miniscule) is an inherit function of a piston driven engine.
Now I am fairly sure that the reason for seeing a cloud of smoke when the boxer is on it's sidestand is that the oil will leak past the piston from the bottom of the piston as this is where your crankshaft housing is that is obviously full of oil and has been spraying around the oil (as it should) to lubricate all the moving parts.

My old K100RS did the same when on the sidestand.
I never understood why BMW designed the K engine with the pistons on the LHS instead on the right, so that on the sidestand, the pistons are pointing down.
Every time I had mine on a sidestand for a day or longer, it used to create a great cloud of smoke during startup. Despite this, the bike never went excessive in oil usage and I just avoided to use the sidestand for longer breaks between rides.

Now if you look at just about any other bike maker, the pistons all point upwards, which will cause the oil to drain away from the cylinder walls simply due to gravity.

On the boxer and the old K engines, even on a center stand, the piston/cylinders are still horizontal, so the oil will pool now at the bottom part of the cylinder wall.
As the piston rings are never a 100% seal to the cylinder walls, a very small amount of oil will leak past the rings and will still be burned on the next startup.

So to me, the boxer inherently by design will always use more oil then any upright engine (which 99% of the other manufacturers use).

Anyway...that's my theory using pure logic, but am happy to be proven wrong.
 
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I have done essentially a "Motoman" type break-in on the current camhead RT and my old 07 R1200R Hexhead.

The RR used about a 1/4 quart of oil the first 600 miles, then another quart over the next 6000 miles. The next 6,000 miles, again the Hexhead used about a quart of oil and at the 12000 mile change switched to full synthetic. At about the 13,000 mile mark, the oil use stopped cold and I never had to add anything between changes.


The 2011 RT Camhead, which I started driving the day is was unboxed, was taken on a 300 mile break-in run over three days, again the "Motoman" technique with the full warm-up and cool down routines. At the 600 service, the bike had used about a half quart. Over the next 2500 miles as the designated demo bike, I monitored the oil, and it did not use any that I noted, although the dealership might have added some. I purchased the bike at the 2500 mile point, I did another oil change with dinosaur oil at 3000 miles, and ran it to 6000 mile service. Over that period, only about a 1/4 cup was used. At the 6000 mile service I switched to full synthetic, and up to now (6500 miles) the oil consumption is zero.
 
I

The 2011 RT Camhead, which I started driving the day is was unboxed, was taken on a 300 mile break-in run over three days, again the "Motoman" technique with the full warm-up and cool down routines. At the 600 service, the bike had used about a half quart. Over the next 2500 miles as the designated demo bike, I monitored the oil, and it did not use any that I noted, although the dealership might have added some. I purchased the bike at the 2500 mile point, I did another oil change with dinosaur oil at 3000 miles, and ran it to 6000 mile service. Over that period, only about a 1/4 cup was used. At the 6000 mile service I switched to full synthetic, and up to now (6500 miles) the oil consumption is zero.

similar to mine... on my 2012 Camhead, I rode it like I stole it (not quite Motoman, but close and with in the limits of the owners manual) I hit the top PRM's often enough, and I downshifted thru all gears (including 1st).. After the 600 mile service and only 1/3 quart loss, I used a 20W50 Dino thru 1600 miles with similar (although higher RPM, up to 7500) acceleration runs and such, and then topped off the oil with only 2 oz and ran it for another 1200 miles... normal riding. Seeing little to no consumption, I've now switched to a Motul 20W50 for the remaining 3000 miles until the 6000 service... and will remain with that oil for the rest of it's life.. Thus far, in 600 miles on the pure synthetic, the sight window reads exactly the same... 0 consumption.
 
Mine is a 2012 demo bike. Was almost to the top of the sight glass this morning. I rode the bike about 300 miles today and it's halfway up the sight glass. It's parked in the same spot in the garage on the center stand. Currently have about 3200 miles on it. Always smell burnt oil at a stop.

Edit to say: The engine was cold when I checked it the first time this morning comparing to 5 minutes after riding for quite awhile. According to the manual could lead to misinterpretations.
 
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similar to mine... on my 2012 Camhead, I rode it like I stole it (not quite Motoman, but close and with in the limits of the owners manual) I hit the top PRM's often enough, and I downshifted thru all gears (including 1st).. After the 600 mile service and only 1/3 quart loss, I used a 20W50 Dino thru 1600 miles with similar (although higher RPM, up to 7500) acceleration runs and such, and then topped off the oil with only 2 oz and ran it for another 1200 miles... normal riding. Seeing little to no consumption, I've now switched to a Motul 20W50 for the remaining 3000 miles until the 6000 service... and will remain with that oil for the rest of it's life.. Thus far, in 600 miles on the pure synthetic, the sight window reads exactly the same... 0 consumption.

Same here, my 2012 has just under 16K miles in the 4 1/2 months I've had it and very near 0 oil consumption from day 1.
 
Mine is a 2012 demo bike. Was almost to the top of the sight glass this morning. I rode the bike about 300 miles today and it's halfway up the sight glass. It's parked in the same spot in the garage on the center stand. Currently have about 3200 miles on it. Always smell burnt oil at a stop.

That's VERY high, I'd be very alarmed and take it in for an analysis. Pull the plugs and see how foul they look. You might need to run a large dose of Techron thru the fuel tank once or twice just to clean out the combustion chamber and valves for
all that burned oil. That's way crazy for 300 miles.
 
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