Oil, lots of oil, in my airbox (Now I know why)

[ducpainter]

Diagnosis is your friend, and always start with cheap, easy first.  Compression/leak down test and breather inspection first.  Compression good?  Rings are not your problem.  Worst case scenario?  Nikosil failure.You wouldn't find that until a tear down.  No reason for a tear down if compression is good.

The air box would not load up with oil quickly from a defective breather, but you would not spot the problem until you encountered a running problem or you looked in the air box.

Back when BCM was open they had a 749 bored out to 923 that would literally fill the airbox after relatively short periods of full throttle until it drained out all over your boot and the rear tire.

They never did figure out why, and it didn't do it when they made it a 749 again.

[stopintime]

Diagnosis is your friend, and always start with cheap, easy first.  Compression/leak down test and breather inspection first.  Compression good?  Rings are not your problem.  Worst case scenario?  Nikosil failure.You wouldn't find that until a tear down.  No reason for a tear down if compression is good.

The air box would not load up with oil quickly from a defective breather, but you would not spot the problem until you encountered a running problem or you looked in the air box.

I'll try to have it tested soon for compression/leak down + breather valve - although I don't suspect this to have happened over time - the oil level was good up until the incident - after which it was much lower.

If it's a cylinder wall problem, I'll get it redone if possible OR reuse the previous cylinder(s) - good condition, but aluminum is 90,000km old.

[Speeddog]

My money's on a broken reed valve in the breather.

IMO, if it were a catastrophic piston or ring problem, it would've smoke-bombed that tunnel.

[ducpainter]

My money's on a broken reed valve in the breather.

IMO, if it were a catastrophic piston or ring problem, it would've smoke-bombed that tunnel.

I'm with you.

[koko64]

Lars, what did you find?

[stopintime]

Lars, what did you find?

Nothing yet.

My dealer will do a compression test and take a look at the breather valve 'soon'.

I'll keep you updated

[stopintime]

No compression in rear cylinder 

Haven't checked the breather valve yet.

[koko64]

Sorry to hear that Lars.

[ducpainter]

I'm surprised it idled.

Sorry to hear Lars.

[stopintime]

It didn't idle well, but ran ~well at medium throttle/rpm.

Long winter to figure out what to do 

[Howie]

Sorry to hear.  Hope the damage isn't too bad.

[ungeheuer]

Ouch.  Sorry to hear that 

Hope repairs are not too spendy.

[stopintime]

Sorry to hear that Lars.

I'm surprised it idled.

Sorry to hear Lars.

Sorry to hear.  Hope the damage isn't too bad.

Ouch.  Sorry to hear that 

Hope repairs are not too spendy.

What's with all the sad faces 

Metal parts moving fast against each other... only a matter of time until something breaks 

If I treated a stock engine nicely I would be pissed, but my situation is different...

I had plans for my bike anyway, so the timing is 'perfect' 

[ducpainter]

Cool...the glass is half full.

You need a SBK for the track anyway.

[stopintime]

Cool...the glass is half full.

You need a SBK for the track anyway.

Why didn't anyone tell me that four years ago 

... but seriously, for me it's a billion times more fun going fast with a little Monster than with a SBK.
Priceless education too - engine, tuning, gearing, brakes, suspension, geometry a.s.o.  I've had to learn better cornering skills to deal with the superbikes - my impression is that a lot of superbike riders don't take that seriously - many of them rely on straight line power and struggle with bike control before and during cornering.
Anyway, it's too late now - I've married my Monster and will keep enjoying it.