Katana Owners Club U.K.

If anyone has time to read this........I would really value any thoughts and advice.
My 1000 has been burning oil for a while but has recently got worse. I have white smoke which gets less as the engine warms up (or the oil gets less) and on a recent 200 mile trip used just over a litre of oil.

The power is still ok and there seems little in the way of performance loss.

So decided cannot continue and last week took the bike to Fred Hanks who is a local mechanic, knows his bikes (but not Kats) and has just come back from racing his sidecar outfit at TT. An old style mechanic and trusted by many around Birmingham.

He had a good look, listened and rode the bike and we ended up with the probability I need rings and valve seals. (Hopefully no more)

He is quoting between £300 and £375 for labour which would include engine out although not having worked on these bikes, doesn't know if that's required.

On top of that I need to provide rings, seals, oil and gaskets.

A friend reckons price is right

So before I go ahead and start pricing the parts, I would really welcome a more knowledgeable view

Thanks

Jerry

Dont think i can help that much, but wouldnt a compression test tell you an awful lot ?

Pete

Yep your right Pete...it was what I took it down for. But he reckons something is obviously going on and wont know until he looks. I'm no mechanic but I have read somewhere that oil down the 'plug holes' during the test can point you to rings or seals!!!!!!!

Not sure on availability of rings for the thou but all the other stuff is relatively easy to source and not to silly price wise. The labour cost sounds pretty good to me for what is a fair bit of work.

A compression test would indeed give a better idea of valve seals or rings and should definitely be done. However, some people would say that if you're getting the head refreshed then chucking in a new set of rings wouldn't be a bad idea.

What sort of mileage has it got and has it stood for any length of time?

New rings isn't a motor out job, it can stay where it is.

What is the total mileage of your bike?

Rings sound reasonable, worst thing would be some first oversize pistons being necessary, too.

Valve seals is just a little plus as your on it. That large amount of oil the bike drinks can't be caused by these alone - unless you haven't got any.

Hi jerry how u doing.sorry to here about ur bike. Firstly white smoke ain't oil. It's petrol. Secondly a compression test will tell u that the motor has compression. You need over 100psi for a four stroke motor to work correctly and I'd expect ur motor to be around 160 psi when warm. More importantly is making sure they are all within 28psi of each other. I have just done my wifes 1170 kat. It was using a litre every 500 miles. Roger upperton replaced all the inlet valve guides an I fitted genuine seals. Now jobs sorted. Remember a compression won't tell ya if ur oil rings are fubar. What's the mileage? FYI roger upperton is very fair on labour

Thanks guys....mileage is 33000km. FBJ have you got a tel no for Roger Upperton. Interesting what you say about white smoke, I'm not leaking oil so not sure why I would be losing so much.

Also without start a whole new thread (although it might) seeing some posts about using supermarket oil....I did< Asda's best. I am fairly certain given the positive comments many of you have given about this stuff it shouldn't be the reason, but almost as soon as I put this in the smoking got worst.

As the engine warms up and I guess things start to expand, smoking gets less.

Thanks for all your thoughts so far......I do want to get the bike sorted but keen to explore everything before paying out what seems like a lot...Pedda, your call on engine not having to come out would reduce cost by a load according to Mr Hanks.

Valve stem oil seals will be really brittle after 30 years. My moneys on them. Are u using 10 l 40 oil

Yep 10/40 is in and now using the expensive stuff. Valve stem seals would be a god send as I could do those Could this account for the amount of oil I'm losing? It would seem to me it might account for the lack of power loss...perhaps!

Ah I miss the power loss bit. That's not stem sills. Do a compression test. Quite straight forward.