Carmenuchi7 wrote:
Let me ask this, then. It seems fairly common knowledge to use 4 qts. of oil. For all who ignore this idea and use more than 4 qts., is it common to have your bike smoke under the circumstances I described?

The dry capacity of a motor that has never had oil in it or has had the cases split is 5.3 qts. When you do a normal oil change by draining both plugs there is still about a qt that is left in the motor. So if you add 5 qts on a change you are at about 6 qts. A qt over dry capacity. The Roadies have a pressurized system. Is the crankcase vent hose still hooked up to the air cleaner? If the hose is still hooked up to the air cleaner the extra oil is going to be dumped into the filter, sucked up into the carb, and burnt in the motor. That will cause an accumulation of burnt oil in the motor which will affect how well it works in pretty short order. Most of us re-route the hose out the bottom of the bike. Even with a normal oil level there is always some oil being dumped in to the air cleaner and sucked in to the carb.

You have a known issue right now. A qt over on oil. You should fix the known issue first. Get to the correct oil level and run some cleaner like Seafoam through the motor to clean the insides out before you start looking for other things IMO.

Hitting the limiter doesn't hurt anything. I hit mine at least once a ride. It's actually a good thing. These bikes love RPMs. They hate stop and go or a lot low RPM slow riding. They hate being babied or lugged.

OK, today I: Changed the oil, 4 qts of Yamalube 20/50 (not synthetic), and a fresh oil filter. New spark plugs - the old ones were not real bad but some black (rich) and white "ash" on the electrode (again, rich, I suppose). New fuel filter. Old one was pretty dirty looking, unsure how much effect this will have. Wanted to change the air filter too, but the dealer that I bought the other stuff from was out. Will do soon.
The results?: Not sure about the smoke becuase I didn't see any myself, did not have anyone riding behind me. Bike seems to have about the same, maybe slightly more pep, although that hasn't been a problem all along.
I want to determine the richness problem of the carb, but for now I tweeked the idle up a little, I like that "Loping" sound but read here that too low idle is not good.
That's where we stand, I'll keep you up to date on any developments.
Thanks for all the replies,
Carmen
Oh yeah, and wound her out and hit the limiter a couple of times this morning, before doing the other stuff.
CD

Just wanted to thank you all for the advice, 4 qts seems to be the ticket. Have ridden with several people since servicing my baby, no one has seen any smoke!
Thanks again!
Carmen

I learn something new on this site every day.

Musky gave a great synopsis above.

Another word on hitting the limiter: It keeps the top end from failure. The stock springs can't endure more RPMs.

I think they'll just end up blabbering rather than controlling valve action.