Burning Oil

I have had my B12 for two years from new. It has been regularly maintained
and only has about 10 thou on the clock. However it seams to be burning oil
at an alarming rate. It has had a Scorpion end can on since about 1000
miles. Can this effect the oil consumption? Its not dynojetted at the
moment do you think it would help the oil problem?

ta
Ken
B12

 

How much is "an alarming rate". Half a litre every 1000 miles is not
particularly unusual on some bikes.

No.

If an engine is using oil, there's 3 possibilities
- it's leaking
- it's getting past the rings
- it's getting past the valve stem oil seals.

You say "burning" rather than "using", which implies that you don't
think the engine is leaking oil anywhere. Does it give a big puff of
grey/black smoke on when you crack the throttle open, especially from
the overrun? If so, then your rings/bores are the culprit. A
compression test should show this up, too.

 

Champ emerged from their own little world to say

Has it only started happening since the last service? Check sump plug
and oil filter are done up properly if so.

This is quite common on BMW Boxers until the rings/bores have bedded in.
I'm not sure of the technicalities just that BMW use some sort of fancy
coating on the bores. My GS used 500ml per 1000 miles when I first had
it at 10k. By the 18k service oil consumption was minimal. You'd get a
puff of smoke when starting the bike; once the engine had warmed up
there would be no sign of oil smoke. There would also be a build up of
soot on the tail pipe.

This may have no relevance to a B12 of course.

 

These people seem to have had problems in that department too.

http://www.sukbog.co.uk/gallery/misc/lenny/lenny.html

 

Probably not. The reason some boxers (and especially 8-valve Ks that
have been left warm on their sidestand) do it is because the cylinders
are horizontal-ish or even slope down and oil can just ooze up the
bore while it's standing. A B12 should drain downwards to the sump.