bsm have you done a compression test
You could be onto something there, as his bike burns a stupid amount of oil. A lot more than it should.
When we first started on his carbs weeks back, we started with the dynojet recommended settings minus the extra lift hole and it ran like sh1t. Today I dropped 1 clip on the needles to lean things out and is now on the 3rd clip and the midrange seems good. I think the mains need dropping as it's still rich on top. Now when we had the mains at 180 in each carb IIRC it wasn't good, so I told him to order a 185 so that we can put a 180 in the front and 185 in the rear, then go from there. I'm not concerned about the bottom yet. Also I noticed martys slides do not close at the same speed. Both diaphragms are good, so it could be new springs time.
In my bike I have been running the 180 front 182 rear (Factory/Keihin) mains for a week or so and have been happy with it. So have now moved onto the needles. My needles where on the 4th clip and on a 3.5 to 4 though roll on to wot throttle it was a bit hesitant (rich) until hitting 5ish and the bike would shoot off with good power. It also smelt a tad rich, so I lowered my needles 1 clip and things seem to be more responsive and smooth.
I shall leave it like that and see how things go, but I'm feeling like I would like to add a shim to each needle so I am in between clip position and make comparisons. I'm such a tinkerer, can't leave things alone.
Then when I'm happy with the mains and needles I shall move onto the pilot circuit. Then a dyno run to see what it shows.
(:-})