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Yeah, I am familiar with his sainthood, he's the veritable pope of BMW.
I'm going to throw this out even though I can't explain it. I have a '12 GSA and also had the burnt oil smell. I went over the bike with a magnifying glass and found no leaks. Also, this is my second GS and I know how to check/fill the oil. What I found was that my throttle body sync was way off (found this during routine maintenance). After the sync, I had no more burnt oil smell. A few months later, I had some warranty work done and once again had the burnt oil smell. After a throttle body sync the burnt oil smell went away. It's possible the smell was due to the GSA being new and the TB sync was a coincidence, but mine no longer smells. My GSA now has 22k miles and the sync is usually spot on.
Dave
Has anyone checked the airbox behind the air filter? Sometimes a small puddle of oil can form there as a result of overfilling the engine oil. The oil then can find its way out of the box and look as if a seal is leaking. Perhaps the oil in the box can get into the airstream in an amount that could cause the odor. When I service my R12R I check for oil in the airbox by attaching a shop towel to a large set of forceps. Just make sure all that goes in comes out.
I'm too lazy to walk out to the shop and check, but I think the TBs are synch'd at a 12,000 mile interval. If that is correct, then all it would take is for a mechanic to skip one synch and you've gone 24k without one. My R has near 40k miles and I check every 6k and the TBs have always been spot on.
Gee, why so snarky?
Yeah, I am familiar with his sainthood, he's the veritable pope of BMW.
Thank you.
My tried and true method for finding oil leaks is to use white antiperspirant spray powder or spray-type baby powder. I spray it on thoroughly cleaned parts where an external leak is suspect. The white powder sticks to the parts and engine oil will quickly produce a brown stain. If it is a slight leak or seep the stain spreads out from the point of origin, leaving a little arrow shaped brown spot pointing at the source of the oil.
I used a paper towel spot sprayed with WD-40 to clean the bottom of the sump area. What would you have used?
Since the problem is not yet resolved I want to go back to basics for a moment. Oil that seeps or leaks out of an engine seldom smells like "burned" oil unless one of two things happens:
1. It gets on something very hot like the exhaust header, catalytic converter, or muffler.
or
2. Is getting into the combustion chamber and being smelled in the exhaust.
We have nominations for leaking seals and for oil in the airbox. One would eventually appear external to the engine while the other could first appear in the combustion chamber and exhaust.
I think the next step in the process is to try to determine whether the smell is oil on hot engine parts or oil being burned in the combustion chamber.
My tried and true method for finding oil leaks is to use white antiperspirant spray powder or spray-type baby powder. I spray it on thoroughly cleaned parts where an external leak is suspect. The white powder sticks to the parts and engine oil will quickly produce a brown stain. If it is a slight leak or seep the stain spreads out from the point of origin, leaving a little arrow shaped brown spot pointing at the source of the oil.
You note in #2: (oil) Is getting into the combustion chamber and being smelled in the exhaust. This may be a silly question, how does this happen? Or can you explain how this happens?
thanks again
73516
Well, suspect #1 is the possibility of oil in the air box. That oil can be picked up by the intake air passing through the air box, through the throttle bodies to the combustion chamber. BMW equipped many air boxes with a drain plug at the bottom of the air box specifically due to this possibility.
You can loosen the clamps on the air tubes and slide them into the air box. Then take a clean cloth and rub it on the inside of the air tubes. Ditto on the air bores of the throttle bodies. Any oiliness would tell me there is oil in the air box being picked up by the intake air stream.
Beyond that we enter the realm of engine mechanical condition. The two prime spots for oil in the combustion chamber is past intake valve stems, or past rings.
I'd check the air box air stream first. Then a compression test and leakdown test could be in order.
The issues are not toally isolated. Oil in the air box accumulates from the crankcase vent. This is exaserbated when there is excessive blowby past the rings, but oil can condense in the airbox just from normal crankcase venting, and it can build up over time.
Also the amount of oil that might collect in the airbox is related to excessive oil in the crankcase air - if the engine oil level is too high.