friend followed me today, says my evo is burning oil, he could smell it.
light smoke from right side. does it sound like rings or could it be something else? 1340 with 71000 miles. 1996 flhpi

 

Valve seals..not rings.

 

are seals hard to change? something i could do at home?

 

Considering he could smell it, probably is a valve seal(s). But with that mileage and considering you'd need to replace the cylinder base gaskets when the heads are pulled, just as well figure on "freshening up" the top end. (valve job w/new seals, and new rings assuming the pistons and bore are OK)

 

guess ill save some money and take her to the shop, how much work is it?

 

That varies... HD shops will charge 250.00 just to bore the cylinders if needed and pistons are 170.00. Gasket set is about 90.00. I do my own valves so I don't know what they charge for that. About 4 hours labor on top of parts for the whole deal. Just a guess mind you, but I'd say 900.00 - 1100.00 at a dealer. Independent shop would be less assuming they could and would simply hone the cylinders and do rings and a valve job. Low dollar guess would be 400.00 (rings, gaskets, valve job and labor) Really no way to know about the cylinders/pistons until it's disassembled. Compression test would give a reasonable idea, but shops have to cover their azz and generally do it all the way to be safe.

"please don't kill the messenger"

 

Before you take her in and spend money. Have you tried sticking your finger in your exhaust pipe to see if you find oil residue. How do you know that your freind is not seeing things. Are you low on oil often?

Do a few simple test first. Or just run in an throw you money at someone.

 

sounds like rings to me my 92 evo did it and used a tad bit of oil between changes . I blew out a rear base cyl gasket riding in too cold of weather so i pulled the back and the rings were lined up, not sure if it just happened or they were like that from factory but i turned them to the stagger and never had an oil problem after .

 

friend said it was light colored smoke not blue. it hasnt been using oil and still runs good. maybe i should give it a compression test.

 

well if its not using oil then its gas. if your burning oil then you would be using oil.