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Grom and Oil Observations

18K views 29 replies 18 participants last post by  Paultergeist 
#1 ·
Hey Everyone,

I ride my Grom on what I call long trips maybe once a month. Weekend trip from dc to north east PA and back ~500miles round trip. When I leave dc, my oil is full and checked several times. The ride is about 5.5 hours and I am mostly at WOT. When I get to my destination, I check my oil and I'm low and need to add some. When I get back to dc (I add oil in pa), I do an oil change to find the blackest oil coming out of my grom. The temperature was in the 60s avg for my driving and no traffic.

Could the grom be running hot and burning oil? My bike is stock, but my thought is that it is running slightly lean like all stock groms seem to be. I am thinking of getting a PVC and exhaust for some more oomph and to run a proper mixture. If I did this, I would get a temp gauge to see if I am overheating. What do you guys think?
 
#3 ·
So then do all of the people on this forum that ride long distance trips on the Grom have the same problem?
 
#5 ·
I let the oil settle before checking the reading. I usually don't check it the day I arrive. I check the next day after letting it idle for about 4-5 minutes and sit for 2-3 like the service manual says before dipping the oil. I know a lot of people on here have been getting black oil every oil change. I had my friend check his oil level about 300 miles after an oil change and his oil was low and I was there when he changed the oil. Not sure what to think of this
 
#11 ·
Is there anyone who is not burning oil at WOT?
I've never had to add oil between oil changes. I change my oil every 2,500 miles and check it regularly whenever I fuel up. It's been within the marks so I don't bother to add any.

As you may know I run my Grom at WOT for hours at a time on my trips. Oil was at a good level even on my 10 hour riding days.

My Grom isn't modified. These are my observations.
 
#10 ·
I ride about 100 miles almost each ride beating on my bike bad, only oil I've added so far was when I changed my oil, dipstick says I got some haha, but mine runs good, another reason I want an oil cooler
 
#12 ·
I never noticed on mine but I also change my oil every 600 miles or so. I just run it and check it. I'll be running it longer now with the kitaco side case since it has a filter and can be easily checked with the oil window. Granted this is if I ever get around to getting it running right.
 
#19 ·
That's a fast conclusion...you have a lot to take into consideration. Rider weight, how long at wot, how long of a day with the oil at temperature, flat ground or uphill battles, and there's more. A lot of groms I have ridden with have also consumed close to the same amount of oil as me when we go on long rides
 
#27 ·
I run WOT most of the time also... Lots of highway riding, I do not like riding int he city. One thing a LOT of people do not understand, is that the engine will reach its operating temperature within 5 or 10 minutes of WOT and stay there. It does not matter if you are riding 15 minutes or 10 hours at wide open throttle, it just is not going to get any hotter.

Mike
 
#29 ·
This is an old thread, I realize, and I am simply bumping it forward as opposed to starting a new thread.

I am at little over 1000 miles on my 2017 Grom — done several oil changes during the break-in process. The last oil change, however, was at 600 miles, so there has been about 400 miles since that last oil change, during which the bike has seen hard, hot running with plenty of WOT. Although the little window on the Kitaco clutch cover seemed to show enough oil (near as I could tell), I DID lose some oil. I added a full liter at last oil change, and I recovered slightly less than 800 mls of oil during this oil change. By my math, that means I might be burning off about 50 mls of oil per 100 miles driven.

I really am not sure if that is a lot of oil loss, or if that is typical of this engine under these operating conditions. In some ways, I guess it really doesn’t matter much, as the exhaust emissions are clear - with no smell of oil — and the plug looks pretty good (no visible indication of fouling), and I have no intention of digging deeper into this issue unless the bike starts to run abnormally. I am just sharing information with others — I currently seem to be burning about 50 mls oil per 100 miles.
 
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