There's no reason not to check the oil when the bike is cold, of course the oil will be cold too, and thus thicker, so it will need to be held upright a bit longer to allow the oil to settle.

Two things... One, why would the SV oil-starvation-while-wheelying problem cause this problem? It's starvation at the crank, causing premature wear at the bottom end, isn't it? Could be wrong...

What usually causes ring/piston wear like this?

The other, is that if it calls for a new barrel (ie not just rings) I may have a set for sale shortly... These are scabby as ****, I wouldn't have them on my bike, but the bores and facings seem sound (well, bear in mind I don't know what i'm talking about, but they're not visibly damaged)

general causes are

- very high mileage
- bad break-in process causing ring scuffing
- inappropriate honing if a rebuild
- red-lining from cold
- bad bore geometry if rebored (plus bad honing)
- overheating causing bore distortion (low coolant)
- running on excessively rich mixture giving bore washing
- running without an air filter (road dust = granite/limestone, very abrasive)
- inappropriate gasket stiffness causing bore distortion
- failed thermostat causing cold running
- frequent cold starts
- broken rings (commonly from clumsy fitting)
- chipped ring edges
- spalling of top ring inlays (if used, e.g. chrome/moly)
- broken piston ring lands (e.g. long term detonation)
- second ring fitted upside down
- oil ring expander bent/broken
- distorted piston (e.g. pre-ignition)
- foreign bodies in cylinder (e.g. grit from plug hole)
- overheated piston from blocked cooling jets
- pick-up of aluminium from piston onto bore surface (usually with overheating or pre-ignition)
etc etc :-k

my SV has very high milage, 106k, it uses oil sporadicly, sometimes it smokes on startup, but usually not, sometimes it smokes on hard acceleration or deceleration too, but usually not, haven't figgered it out yet, sometimes I can go 1500 miles without adding and sometimes I have to add close to a quart afer 400 miles. I just add oil when I need too.

all service has been done by dealer per OM, they used to always put Suzuki 10w-40 in now in summer they put spectro 20w-50, when it's low I put in what ever I have on hand, any oil is better than low on oil. I would have to say I use on average 2 qt every oil change/3.5-4k

hey Mate

Thought i would reply in here too!

Right, no rdex was ever used, i never bodge anything, and if i do i never sell it bodged!!

The bike did use sum oil when i had it, but nothing that made me concearned, i never thrashed it though, for fear of crashign it!!

Im sorry to hear that this has happened, its not ur fault, after all its mechanical, so these things do happen, dont take it to heart!

I widh i could help, and im sorry to hear about ur problems, after all it served me v well for thousands of miles!!

how many miles have you done on it Yams, sounds liek u have done 8 thousand, in the last month!!! its bond to use oile in that many miles as it needs changing every 5k!!

hope it all works out if i can help any more let me know

Alex

It has correct amount of oil now, as I topped it up, yet the gear changes have gone really stiff.. I pulled out onto big fast roundabout in 1st and thought ****TT it wont change gear :shock: :shock: so lucky no cars were immediately behind me :x

for what its worth a stiff gearbox on an SV can be sign that you have put to much oil in it

i found that with mine the level looked oK but the gear change was stiff as anything

Heres a quick vid from this morning when I started it up

http://www.cwimedia.co.uk/other/misc/sv650smoke.wmv

Oh and it's not cold at all so it's not that.. :lol: it's sometimes worse than that though :?

So, not wheelies then :)

Okay here's something that's weird. Whenever I change the oil, the gearbox and clutch are a utter pigs for the first ten miles, not wanting to change and the clutch buggering about and stalling the bike when it comes to a standstill.

Then after (as I say) ten miles or so, it magically changes and everything is super-smooth again till then next oil change. I mentioned this to Sid Squid but he (unusually) was completely puzzled and had no answer.


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