1150 Oil Consumption

One of my early 1100s had approx 18k miles on it and in the 30k I had it significantly "ran in"... Light use on these can mean the high consumption on a new bike never goes away... Sometimes the new bike usage would be very alarming to non boxerheads but was classified as fairly normal...
 
when i buy a bike , i run diesel oil for 1k miles to clean it out .
then in the 1150 i run 20/60 in the summer and 15/50 in the winter .
mine used less oil at 140k than it did when i got it at 33k .
when i go away i fill it til there is a small bubble in the sight glass , and when i get back ( 3k miles ) it is halfway from middle to bottom.

i wouldn't keep topping it up , it may be finding where IT wants to be.
 
It may be a switch to 20/50 mineral oil for 1-2k
It may have been babied by previous owners - the rings need a bit of work to seal, in the early days
Are you using 20/50 semi, as that is new thinking for 1150’s
As far as I’m aware it is running 20/50 semi. I’ll run it hard on mineral for a spell methinks.
 
It turns out it’s used a little less than 500ml in 1800 miles. So quite acceptable. She’s going well Just turned 18,000.
 
It turns out it’s used a little less than 500ml in 1800 miles. So quite acceptable. She’s going well Just turned 18,000.
About the norm
You could experiment with 20/50 mineral oil for 500-1000 miles and drop it and refill with 20/50 semi synthetic
20/50 is acceptable practice nowadays whereas 20 years ago BMW recommended 10/40 in 1100/1150’s
 
There are many 20w-50 oils with high levels of zinc, sulphur and phosphorus, described as suitable for older high mileage engines.

Do these formulations have any benefit for 1150 engines with 50,000+ miles ?
 


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