I noticed some oil in my clear plastic catch bottle. About half full.I recently had to add a small amount of oil as well. Bike only has 6000 miles. Normal?
My bike is a 2014 Akro exhaust ,Ivan puter ,custom tune on PC5. Makes 198rwhp.

I can only speak for the Gen1 but it was notorious for leaking oil from the front left of the head cover gasket. IMHO that was entirely caused by the rubber gasket ringos under the head cover bolts. Check the torque on those bolts and replace the ringos every couple years and I bet any 06-12 ZX-14 will not leak. Either that or put a washer under each head cover bolt. I D K if this applies to the 14r or not but I found the head cover bolts LOOSE both times I removed the cover. It's not the bolts, the ringos just get squashed and lose resiliency.

Oil in the bottle is just from your airbox or something. That would not be enough for you to need to add oil. I think if your exhaust is invisible at 70 F ambient temp, your not burning any oil. I doubt you are. I don't hear about 14s burning oil, just leaking from the valve cover.

fi, I broke my bike in how?
I had my dyno on the bike when it had ________ Fill in the blank miles, my warranty is null and void.
I babied the bike since new before the dyno.
I ran it in hard the first 20 miles, no mercy.

I fill up my oil at this level when the bike is ______ Fill in the blank... when on both wheels upright; on a stand; when I don't see any; on the kickstand looking at the window before I get on: if no washing machine turbulence at the window I add oil.
I miss a lot of shifts when I go for a jolly.
I have yet to look at my air cleaner to see how oiled that is on the inside.

I am going to put everything back on, say nothing, spill the beans to no one about my hp number, you'll never hear from me again.
I confess. I better man up and eat this warranty I could not wait to mod till the turtle time was up with any warranty claim I am clean from day one. No, I did not listen to turtle, dyno'd that so many times to get that number. I jumped in the lake with every other dumb dick in the pool was beat it like my meat it like she stole it. I did hammer on that puppy and now my ____ Fill in the blank deposit of choice is filled like a catch bottle.

Rook, do not rely on some ambient but leak or compression tests instead. Pg. 7-5 says I drop back down is the return dots (no pressure).
Pg. 7-4 says to see the engine return dots at the top of the engine? The breather tube returning oil back into the engine, as opposed to the solid black lines under pressure to the parts. Pg. 7-5 shows white in the hoses heading up to the ram chamber is air entering the ram.

That breather has a maze to separate the oil. Only way that oil gets up the ram is to blow more air into the crankcase. Compression builds air and if the rings can't hold it back, the oil is going to be pushed up the tube faster than it can separate in the maze.

Did I lose oil from the crankcase yes or no? Yes. Then, not normal. That catch bottle is when you take a shower with your bike or get caught in the rain and it is sucked in past the air cleaner and into the ram chamber. That's what is suppose to be caught in the bottle, not oil. But in this case, kill 2 birds.

what does the airbox look like? I cant remember ... is that catch bottle/ tube connected to the airbox? When my bike blew up the pressure actually pushed oil UP the crankcase breather, up a 4 ft tube, and sprayed all over my bike. Maybe excessive blow-by? But to only fill the little catch bottle 1/2? One tiny pull with my bike (gen 1) would fill a pop can.

There is a trough at the bottom back of the Gen1 airbox. The drain tube comes off of that. I don't recall if it is the one with the bottle...I think Hub is right, the bottle is not from the air box. Airbox drain tube is probably just a tube w/o bottle.

MAn, now I need a Ge2 so I can talk to you guys.

Hub
This is my 2nd 14R. First was a 2012. I put 16K miles on that one and traded for 2014. I broke this one in a bit harder. Lots of on off hard accel/decel to seat rings. Had exhaust and puter and tune put on almost immediately...swapped over from 1st bike. Im gonna keep watching the oil level. Im thinkin this coulda been a fluke...due to rapid temp changes and maybe me checkin before all oil had settled.
I always check oil level with bike upright and level.
I was mainly curious if anyone elses bike ever used any oil after hard riding etc...i have a scion car that has always used oil and the owners manual even states that it will....wtf? Lol

I have no way of investigating this but I believe hard use does cause a little oil consumption. It definitely will if there is a leak. Look at the front left side of your valve cover under the rubber heat insulator blanket...or stick your finger under there and feel for an oil leak.

Thanks Rook....Ill check

I broke this one in a bit harder. Lots of on off hard accel...

A bit harder you did. You know when I sign off with those letters... You know WOTWATT that really means?

Signed,

No one listens to the Owner's Man You will pay me now or pay me later. Like try to hide something from the factory, but my other bike didn't with the almost close to book break-in, yes?

Here is our contract with you for warranty. You follow our break-in buy the book or it's on you. You do not touch anything on this bike but check off every service interval and show proof someone did it, date, parts receipt or we have the dealer's work order, etc.

Did you see that footnote you can't even read between the lines?

Who said you can go modding and look at those exhaust ports, you forgot to plug in your PAIR. We can't wait for you to accumulate miles so it's a year or a lot of generous miles either way stay the course. Oh you didn't and now the main part, the most critical part page-break-in and you didn't follow it.

We lose oil as any other engine but not one keeps filling the crankcase before the next 3k. If you looked at my dick, it was dripping with lake water and I used about that much on a hard break-in is why you see the green rocks as the water line now. I followed book for this one and the level was where I put it give or take, it wasn't leaving like it was with the last one. You wanted to play with the big boys, got your dick wet, now dry off like a man and take it. Oil is cheap. Stock up.

Rook, 17-2.
1. Ram chamber rain bucket.
18. Ram (frame) crankcase breather belcher tube. Rain bucket is now a barf bucket.

Books blows your asses away is another way of saying...

Signed,

NOLTT

LOL...right right...yeah I just had a QS4 Bazzaz put on and that required some hard dynoing...the oil was nearing the end of its life as well so...I used a small amount...no big deal. I beat on her pretty regularly so like u say any hard run engine will use a little. My Kawi guy said the industry standard is like a quart in 5000 miles or something is acceptable? He said due to the lightweight rings etc that give us all dat power....blah blah..anyway...Im sure she's fine. Thanks fellas

My Kawi guy said the industry standard is like a quart in 5000 miles or something is acceptable?

Great choice on the BAzzaz QS, BTW.

Bike only has 6000 miles. Normal?...I'd say...yes...okay.

"quart in 5000 miles or something is acceptable?"...maybe to him...has he serviced many 14's?Qt in 5k is NOT acceptable.On all my 14's(3 so far)I change the oil anywhere from 5K and a bit more...it just doesn't need it.NEVER have(had)to add any oil in any of em at these intervals.Full synthetic.Change mine when I start to feel the shifting get 'not so smooth'....I don't baby my bikes either.Not sayin ALL 14's will not burn some oil....but your service guy saying that....that's just wrong.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 10/23/2014 @ 9:51 PM *

Have to agree with GRN, a quart in 5000 miles seems like a lot, the only bike I know of
that uses that much oil was a 2008 Honda CBR 1000, and I'm not sure Honda ever owned up
to, or explained that fully .....

Agree with Grn and carabuser. A quart every 5000 miles is way too much for a modern water cooled engines. My BMW R1100S needed 1/2 qt of oil every 3000 miles on normal use and every 1000 miles if I rode hard in hot climate but the bike was air/oil cooled twin.

In all honesty I dont remember the exact figure he referenced. He was just saying that they can use some oil and for warranty purposes it would have to be using quite a bit. Ive been watching my oil level. Seems fine now. I think my deal was some kinda fluke....

I can only offer this. In 3400 miles my oil level didn't change. It's hard to say your hard break-in is at fault, or riding style. I don't imagine 100% of the time you're riding WOT. You might have just gotten a bike that uses a bit more oil than average for whatever reason. Could be hard break-in, could just be.

Maybe your best comparison is someone that you ride with, or know if they ride like you and how much oil they use. I wouldn't be too concerned, unless you're doing maintenance and see oil fouling or blue smoke in your exhaust. I run extended intervals in my Ranger (6 months, usually 6000-8000 miles) and usually add a little oil around 4 months in. Been running this way since around 50k miles a few years ago now, it's just over 100k now. I changed the spark plugs last year (100k) and they looked great, just like they should.

18K miles. I dont see a drop difference from day I fill it to day I change it.

No leak at the valve cover. Never was one at delivery, and valve service did not start one.

4K miles on my 2014 and 20K miles on my '09. Never used any oil in between oil changes done at recommended intervals.

Been doin a little research. There is a crankcase breather hose that extends pretty far down into the crankcase and can sometimes get into the oil thereby suckin some oil up into the airbox. Anybody pulled their oil pan and seen this hose? Its on page 336 337 of zx14r service manual. I just changed plugs and they all look great. I dont believe the engine is hurt. No way....

Never dropped the oil pan on my Gen1 but I have seen oil in my air box one time years ago. I found a very slight film in there a couple years back. Almost unnoticeable.

Just ready to turn 40K on my 2012 ZX-14 and put 50K on my 08. I change the oil on the same date every year with Amsoil. I have never had to add oil.

You fellows that have never added oil....do you ride hard...fast...hit redline often? I do.

I think that causes some oil use. Hot temps, too. If it's not smoking or leaking, I don't see the problem. A lot of the mystery will be solved once people take that rubber heat shield off the engine. Then you'll see if there is a leaky valve cover and it's not hard to do a quick fix.