After rebuild woes - Metal Mice are in my engine

I have some figuring out to do, so I'm starting this post to help keep track.
Story - My cam chain guide was making noise. Other than that my bike was running good. Compression wasn't the best, but also wasn't too bad, maybe around 130-140
While I had the engine out I also replaced the cam chain and the piston rings. I also cleaned stuff up. The pistons were stamped with .953 I believe these are stock size pistons. I ordered standard sized rings. They came stamped with the same markings as the old rings. The letters RN facing up.
Everything went back together good.
Bike started straight away, idles great. Now...
When the bike warms up, after riding it a bit, I get smoke coming out of the crankcase breather. Too much.
And the bike sounds like I have little metal mice having a conversation inside my engine.
I suspect the issue is with the rings. But what exactly went wrong?
My compression tester won't be available till next week.

Here is a link to the rings I put on. https://www.mikesxs.net/parts/yamaha-xs650-piston-rings-standard-size-447-type-oem-447-11610-00

Did you have the cylinders honed for the new rings?

Hi system9, did you measure a compression ring end gap in the barrel, top, midway, bottom? As Scabber pointed out did you hone the barrels?
What was the condition of the pistons, ring groves,any pictures at all?

head gasket leak ?

Did you put any liquid gasket around the camchain tunnel and the cylinder studs ?
If not .....you might have excess crankcase pressure due to compression leaks from the cylinders into the camchain tunnel /crankcase.

Retorquing the cylinder head might cure it if you haven't yet done this following your rebuild.Should retorque before 100 miles

Compression testers are cheap enough ...you could probably get one under $10 at Harbour Freight or similar and keep as a spare http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mityvac-5525-Compression-Tester-/141735566945?hash=item2100191e61:g:GowAAOSwjVVVv6AM&item=141735566945&vxp=mtr

Lets have some more info.
Did you resurface the cylinders
Did you check bore top and bottom
Did you have good or weak compression before
Did you use a ring compressor or just push down on cylinders
Now what I think you did was break a oil ring and yes when it gets hot the oil on top of piston will smoke and come out exhaust or breather
Noise maybe new chain and may just have to be readjusted
NOW take a deep breath and grab some tools and tear it down again ITS only a motor and many people make a little mistake and that's how you learn.

You may also need to re-adjust your new cam chain. They are very tight when new and installed but loosen quickly when put into use. Just like the head re-torque, you should be checking the cam chain tension a couple of times in the first 1000 miles.

I can't help remembering all the trouble that ANLAF had with his yellow banana back in 2013. I seem to remember he rebuilt his engine 6x times before he cured the smoking. One of the engines was brand new from Heiden !...

I seem to remember that that was caused by rings being put in upside down and leaking head gasket between one cylinder and the camchain tunnel.
This is one of the threads
http://www.xs650.com/forum
/showthread.php?t=30834&highlight=smoke&page=3

Update.
My son got me a compression tester for fathers day.
My compression in both cylinders is 150. After it gets hot, its still around 150, maybe 152.
So compression is good.
Now, more info on the rebuild. This is my first time into the engine, so I have learned some things after I put it back together. The pistons were stamped .953
I was told these were stock pistons. When I got the bike it had 7000 miles on the odometer (may or may not have been true). Compression before the rebuild was ok, like 130-140, but not the best, so I figured I would put in new rings while I was replacing the cam chain guide (the reason i took it apart)
I did not hone the cylinders.
The rings were put in with the letters facing up (RN) Only 2 of the larger rings had markings.
Now, After I had the jugs lowered down onto the pistons the first time, I was missing a washer, so I took them off again to look in the engine (found the washer, thank god)
Lowered the jugs back on, compressed the rings with a popsicle stick.
So, good compression and a decent amount of smoke. I have readjusted the cam chain tension. This bike is full of noises, so I'm getting used to trying to figure out what is normal and what is not. Overall the bike sounds pretty good I think.
I did not use any liquid gasket. I have retorqued the bolts. Bike show no signs of any external leaks.

Look at it thisaway. You can replace a worn tire with a new tire of matching size. Same with drive chain, bulbs, oil, sparkplugs, ...etc. Remove and replace.

But, in the engine, pistons, rings, cylinders, valves, guides, must all be fitted to specific clearances and surface conditions. Can't just put things in there like replacing light bulbs. Cleaning, surface prep, measurements, assessments, machining, fitting, lapping are parts of the engine service procedures. Often best done by a machine shop that has the exotic tooling and experience for this kind of precision work. Your service manual's engine service section has the inspection, measurement, and fitting procedures for an overhaul when pistons and cylinders pass measurement criteria. But, it won't cover the more serious machining/boring work. That's a separate industry...

So at this point, I need to remove the engine.
Remove the jugs. Should I have the cylinders honed regardless of how they look? If so, and after I hone them, I measure them and from that measurement decide my ring size?

Kinda. You hone them, then do the various bore inspections and measurements.

If they're within spec for that particular bore size (std, 1st over, etc.), then you can get rings for that size.
Then, those rings must be gapped for their specific bores.

If not, then oversize pistons/rings and cylinder boring.

Pistons also need to be inspected and measured.
If in spec, clean and reuse.
If not, replace...

TwoManyXS1Bs said:

Kinda. You hone them, then do the various bore inspections and measurements.

If they're within spec for that particular bore size (std, 1st over, etc.), then you can get rings for that size.
Then, those rings must be gapped for their specific bores.

If not, then oversize pistons/rings and cylinder boring.

Pistons also need to be inspected and measured.
If in spec, clean and reuse.
If not, replace...

Click to expand...

Ditto that 2M....

That "953" you found stamped into the top of your piston was it's original size when new, as in 74.953mm. On the sides of the sleeves that hang out the bottom of the cylinders, you should find another 3 digit number stenciled there. That would have been the bore size when new, as in 75.XXXmm. The factory clearance spec between cylinder and piston is .050-.055mm. That means you should see something between 003 and 008 stenciled on the sleeves. Now you measure the parts to see how much they've changed (worn) from those "new" numbers. The bore size will increase and the piston size will decrease.

Well...., I figured it out. The squeaking and smoke were not related to the pistons, or rings at all. They were my camshaft and rocker arms at battle.
When I had my engine out, I decided to do the gasket on the Tach side. It always had a little leak. When I had the cover off, I thought I might take off the tach gear, because I don't even have a tach. I researched this first to make sure it was ok, I guess it is, but I must have messed up the oil pump somehow? as no oil was going up the oil tube. Is one of the tach drive gears responsible for sending oil up the oil tube? Now my rocker arms and camshaft are burnt up.
So now I need rocker arms, bearings (they got pretty hot) and possibly a camshaft.
Or, can you resurface/smooth out messed up rocker arms?
(the little black debris around the bearings at first made me think my bearings burnt up, but that is crap that got shaved from the rocker arms)

You can find good/servicable cams and rockers on eBay for much less than a regrind service. That is, assuming a regrind service will even accept your burnt parts.

Also, check your valve adjusters and valvestem tips.

Maybe you'd like to install an oil pressure gauge?

http://www.xs650.com/threads/xs650-top-end-oil-pressure-gauge.45317/

I got some rockers and a cam from ebay as suggested.
That oil pressure gauge is a great mod. Turns out I was missing the woodruff key that secures the oil pump gear . The top end oil pressure gauge would have alerted me to that.