Hello there I’m looking for some help from people that know a lot more than me lol.

Last week I noticed my oil smelt like gas. I immediately knew there was an issue. So I managed to get an appointment at the dealership where I bought it. They explained to me that there is nothing wrong with the motorcycle and are billing me for diagnostics. Which I understand but this is not a normal issue? This a new bike there shouldn’t be gas in the oil. Which the dealership isn’t denying. They just don’t know the issue or how it could’ve happen.

Once learned I contacted the Kawasaki Customer service department. They informed me to have the dealership to contact them. So I called the dealership, they stated they have no reason to contact them since they have not found anything wrong.

Can someone please give me some advice and or explain why that would’ve happen? The bike only has 2800 miles on it.

 

How do you ride? Do you do short hops? Some gas will get in the engine oil, getting past the rings. This gas will evaporate out IF the engine gets warmed up enough to evaporate it. Go for a ride for at least a half hour to an hour, so the engine gets good and hot. Park it, let it cool, and now smell the oil.

After that, if there is still a definite smell of gas, I'd go back to the dealership and ask why they think this is not an issue. Let me be clear, I am NOT saying there is or isn't a problem. I'm saying you should get an explanation of WHY there is no problem according to the service department. I'd also say maybe stop in at another Kawasaki dealership and ask their service department.

Now one other possible reason might be HOW you ride. There is the ancient "do not exceed 4000 rpm for the first 600 miles" sticker usually on the bikes. They had that on my Kawasaki 400 triple two stroke. Per my friend, the Kawasaki trained service tech/service manager, I ignored the sticker. On the two strokes if you tried to do under4000 rpm for the first 600 miles the top ends would have so much oil, they'd start running bad and foul plugs. He said ride it normal, no redline and no lugging the engine. Then when I worked in a dealership selling bikes and setting them up, we would tell those who bought new bikes to ignore the sticker and just ride it normal, but not to run over 80% redline or lug the bike under 3000-4000 rpm depending on the bike.

At too low an rpm the fuel mixture has more time to blow by the rings under compression. Too low of rpm break in can cause problems. Ride the bike at normal middle rpm, not lugging the engine too low nor reving the engine too high. That is, according to our Honda service rep, the way it should be done - we put the question to him and told him what we advised and he quickly agreed.

Your bike has peak horsepower at 10,000 rom, the peak torque is at 7500 rpm. For that bike I'd tell a new rider to ride it mostly between 4000-6000 rpm and occasionally up to 8000 rpm. We also recommended riding where the rpm will vary, hilly curvy roads being the ideal area to ride for break in. With my XSR700 I seldom am under 4000 rpm, only when in slow town traffic. I broke it in just riding normal for me, which is between 4000-7000 rpm in general. You just don't want to lug the bike around or run the snot out of it. Plus you don't want to just do short hops where the engine doesn't get warmed up enough. I usually will be riding a minimum of 30 minutes when I run errands and such. I'll take the long way home, which adds around 20 miles to the end of my 4 mile errand ride.

The idea of break in with varied rpms is that the pressure of reving the engine higher or putting a bit more load on the engine at proper rpm will put more pressure on the rings, seating them, but they need less throttle and rpm to allow the heat transfer between piston rings and cylinder wall so as to not overheat things. So the acceleration/deceleration provides the ring pressure for seating them in and the cool down time for heat transfer between rings and cylinder walls.

One other thing to back up riding long enough to warm up the engine and exhaust system, at lower temperatures, the engine can develop condensation inside, the kind of temperatures developed when only doing short hops, only riding short times. That condensation can corrode things in the engine and condensation is what will rust out an exhaust system. Back in the 80s a low mileage older bike often had slip on mufflers, because the original ones rusted out, the rider only did short rides like down town or to park or bar. The ones that had original exhausts usually had higher mileage, indicating the riders rode the bikes long enough to get all moisture evaporated.

Go out, ride your bike varying rpm, run for a good long ride, then check your oil smell.