What kind of oil?

[DrewNJ]

Personally, I think a lot of people's excessive oil usage is from trying to constantly run the reservoir at the full mark and it being drawn into the intake.
I change oil at the 3k-3.5k mark and am never more than 1/4-1/2qt lower than where I started.
My "full" level is no more than 1/2 way up the hash marks. I'm usually at the bottom range of the marks at change time.
I do 4qts on my sm5 for a change.....no more.

 

[coz]

Tru dat

I agree. I've been using valvoline full syn. For the last three years. Four quarts only, each change. It uses about a pint between changes.

 

[BajaRon]

Personally, I think a lot of people's excessive oil usage is from trying to constantly run the reservoir at the full mark and it being drawn into the intake.
I change oil at the 3k-3.5k mark and am never more than 1/4-1/2qt lower than where I started.
My "full" level is no more than 1/2 way up the hash marks. I'm usually at the bottom range of the marks at change time.
I do 4qts on my sm5 for a change.....no more.

You can do it this way and it does seem to alleviate the problem. Hard to argue with success.

It just seems to me that the engineers set the oil level (volume) where they did for a purpose. I figure the lower you start, the sooner you get to the 'Too Low' point. So for those of you who would like to fill their Spyder to the 'Full' mark. All you need do is correct the engineering error in the crankcase vent system which is the reason oil gets sucked into your air box.

It's cheap, easy and permanently corrects the issue.

There are several ways to do this. But this is the way I did it.

Bajaron's oil catch can

You can skip several steps by simply inserting a plug of open foam air cleaner material in the existing hose if you want to go really simple. I don't like that approach because you can't see what is going on in your 'Catch Can'. But I've been told it works fine.

 

[finless]

Personally, I think a lot of people's excessive oil usage is from trying to constantly run the reservoir at the full mark and it being drawn into the intake.
I change oil at the 3k-3.5k mark and am never more than 1/4-1/2qt lower than where I started.
My "full" level is no more than 1/2 way up the hash marks. I'm usually at the bottom range of the marks at change time.
I do 4qts on my sm5 for a change.....no more.

I might agree with you but on my Spyder I get to the bottom of the dip stick after about 1,000. Yes I do fill it to the max mark when that happens.

However with that said, when I took my air box out this weekend, there was ZERO and I mean ZERO oil in the box.

Since my 600 mile dealer service, I in fact have been consistently burning just under a quart in 4,600 miles. Now maybe filling it to max caused some to get burned off and if I only filled it to half I might have burned less? But it is using more than you are seeing.

Bob

 

[900Dave]

I will just repeat what others have said. Dont idle to bring it up to temp, that did not work for me. When I first got mu ST I did the same thing added over a 1/2 quart because it looked low. I went for a ride and checked when I came back and it was waaay over full. Had to suck it back out.

I change my own oil not that hard. I use the BRP kit just because it is easy, everything in one box. I only use about 1/2 quart between oil changes. Maybe not even that much. Your dealer is full of sh******.

 

[AY4B]

Thanks everyone for your input. I took it out today and checked it. It was overfull by about 5 ounces. I used a syringe type tool that I use to mix gas and oil. I could pull out 2 ounces at a time. That means it was really just 3 ounces low which is about right from what you all say.