I'm prepping a Suzuki GS500 for track use and have come across a frustrating problem. The bike will run fine on flat surfaces but will stumble, won't want to rev, and then eventually die when driven up steep hills. Bike is a 1991 with 25K miles. After a few moments bike starts up again but usually with help from the choke. I'm noticing oil coming out of the valve cover breather hose and it's depositing on my K&N pod filters. I'm wondering if this oil, which is enough to color the top of the filters brown, is choking out the engine and causing it to stall. My short term fix is to increase the length of the breather hose so that the breather filter is below the air filters (plus for WSMC I have to stick the end filter into a container). But this shouldn't be happening anyway. Any ideas as to why I'm leaking oil like this? I've checked the oil level several times the level is at the proper indicated level. Sparkplugs look nice and brown, no sign of oil coming past the rings. I haven't checked compression but the bike runs well for a GS as long as it's either on a flat surface or running downhill. I appreciate any help or insight here. Adam
Are you suggesting that my float bowls are running dry? I will try the U-tube test. How would this affect the oil level though? Thanks Adam
The floats low could cause it to konk out on a hill. The oil out the breather how much air is coming out the breather hole while it is running? Compression good? Could be blow-by from poor piston seal. The breather should be run up higher than the valve cover and it needs to be in a catch can. If the hose is higher the oil should not make it to the catch can.
