Replaced the plugs out of my '05 RG at 10,000 miles. The rear plug looked fine but the front cylinder plug concerns me. This is the factory-installed plug. It appears to burning a little oil. What do you think?



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I have a plug that appears similar to yours and I was told that it was oil on it. Mine has new valve seals on it but the people that put them on may not have known the correct procedure to install them so I'm going to pull the heads and have it done again. I also had some oil getting in there from the head breathers in the air cleaner so I removed them and that seems to have solved the problem on the rear cylinder, but the front still looks like your plug. The 05 models had some problems with valve seals leaking so you might want to contact your dealer. Tell them it's using a quart or more every 800-1000 miles to get them to replace them under warranty. Mine is an 03 and probably not their fault so I'm doing it myself.

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I took the plug to the dealer. The dealer told me that since this was the original plug that they would wait to see what happens. I put in new plugs and did an oil change at 10,000 miles. They told me to check the plug at 500 miles. If the plugs still looks bad that they would do the warranty work. The dealer referred to the leaking valve seal as a "puffer". I'm assuming that's because it will puff a bit of smoke out the pipe once in a while. I'll monitor the puffing while my wife rides the RG. I'm also monitoring the oil consumption.

 

I just got the heads off of my bike tonight. Both are heavily carboned with the front one much worse. I also had oil in the intakes of both heads and heavy carbon buildup around the exhaust stem in the port on the front head. I had never noticed that my bike had smoked any and it ran very well except for the ocassional pinging. I'm sure now that the seals are the problem as I had also never used any oil and it had just recently started using a little.. Keep an eye on yours and hopefully you can get them to fix it for you.

 

When you said, "I had never noticed that my bike had smoked any and it ran very well except for the occasional pinging", that sounds like my RG. I do notice more oil consumption but I need to measure it. Do you see any hairline cracks in your head(s)? Did you do a compression test?

 

When I had the valves ground this winter they checked the heads for cracks then and found them to be ok. The compression after I did my cams this winter was approx. 175 per cylinder. I checked it again right before I tore it down this time and it was approx. 185 per cylinder. There was quite a bit of carbon buildup on the heads and the top of the piston so I'm assuming that was the cause of the increase in compression. I'm sure hoping the valve seals cure mine as it's no fun tearing an engine down when I could be riding.
Keep us informed how yours turns out, but I'm guessing you'll need the new seals also. Look at the bright side, at least the dealer should foot the bill for yours. I'm just glad I can do mine so at least I can save the labor