| Author | Message | ||
     Tempest766 |
After overfilling with oil last year and paying 60$ for a new air filter, I've been religious about maintaining correct oil level in my bike. Since the dealer replaced the oil pump cover two summers ago my bike has been terrible about using oil at the rate of 1-millilitre/mile...no indication of burning but it just disappears. Since I've been more paranoid about the air filter becoming oil saturated I've been checking that more often and I'm seeing WAY TOO MUCH oil spew from the rear cylinder breather tube. The stain is on the left side of the new filter. What I need to know is WHY!!!??? Why would one cylinder blow oil back out the breather and not the other? I check my oil as follows: run bike for 20+ miles and then leave it running on the kickstand, level in the garage...open reservoir filler and shine a flashlight inside to verify flow. let engine run idle for about 60 seconds with cap removed, then shut off engine and check oil level within next 30 seconds. I try to keep it just below the third X from the top. No need to preach to me about breather relocation...it's gonna happen but I'm not a fan of modifications without totally understanding why they are necessary. | ||
| Uly_man |
I do not run mine above xxx from the bottom of the stick as I get the same thing. You could try that but if it continues to drop then something else is going on. The latter bikes have a PCV which may be the problem but someone else here may know more about them. "No need to preach to me about breather relocation...it's gonna happen but I'm not a fan of modifications without totally understanding why they are necessary." You do not NEED to if you do not want to do it. The reason for doing it is to stop the engine trying to burn the oil and air vapours from the engine. It does work even on a 10 bike. Its an emissions thing. | ||
| Tempest766 |
thx...uly_man at least someone else is noting the same problem...does yours only blow through one breather tube, or did both spew excessively? I also notice that once the oil spew hits the AIT sensor the bike performance goes in the toilet. yeah...I'd prefer to leave the bike as stock as possible and not do a reroute but if I cannot figure out why the spew then it will become a necessity just to ride the thing. | ||
| Uly_man |
It depends on what you mean by a lot of oil. It would be a good idea to post a picture if possible. | ||
| Tempest766 |
cleaned up the oil when I noticed it so no photo is available...a lot of oil means it was pooled up on the moulding depressions along the edge of the air filter chamber and down in the crease at the base of the air intake stack. | ||
| Tootal |
Next time you change oil put in exactly 2.5 quarts. Go for a 20 minute ride. Come home, leave the bike running and check the oil while it's running. Wherever it is on the dipstick is where it should be. When I first got the bike I thought it was using oil but it was just over filled and kept blowing it out. Mine ended up at 2X's from the bottom. Now it stays there. | ||
| Tempest766 |
Oh, it definitely uses oil. I've seen it below the bottom of the dipstick after long multi-hundred mile rides. so if it's blowing oil out the breather when it registers that low then something else is going on...and it's only the rear cylinder tube. | ||
| Uly_man |
A few pictures if any help?   These bikes do use oil and more so on a young engine ie less than 6k miles. Min X to max X is 150ml. I think my bikes use about 50ml per 1000 miles once run in, about 6 - 8k miles, and maybe 40ml engine and 10ml from the crank case venting. These are only very rough numbers though and it depends on many things like oil type, etc. I would check the PCV valve on the rear head. Either switch them around to prove it or take the rear off and clean/check it is not sticking. | ||
| Tempest766 |
I will check/clean/swap the PCV valves...thx! I hope it's not too much of a headache to get to them. I haven't looked at the manual yet. | ||
| Tempest766 |
Scratching my head as to why there is no "procedure" in the service manual for checking or servicing the PCVs. At least I'm not seeing one...I've come to the conclusion that the service manual itself leaves a bit to be desired. | ||
| Swampy |
What weight oil are you using? What it the ambient temperature and how do you ride it? There, two good questions.... | ||
| Sagehawk |
Breather reroute was best mod I did early on. Just got through with motor roll, rocker gaskets etc, and replaced both valves just cuz. They are not servicible and not too expensive either. I think that the foam in bottom of valve just gets loaded up which may affect the performance of valve. I'll try to post some pics rhis week of my setup as it is cheap, simple, and works. Drain valve is great as here on gulf coast you would be amazed at how much water I get out of it. Main reason as well not to burn crankcase vapors thru intake. | ||
| Tempest766 |
re: swampy. mobil-one 20w50 vtwin or amsoil 20w50 in both reservoir and primary. riding varies from 60s to low 90s and mostly highway cruising at 3100-3500rpms. an occasional quick start up to 4500-5000 rpms from a traffic signal. engine heats up and performance goes in the crapper if I must do a lot of start-stop city riding at temps over 70 degrees. | ||
| Uly_man |
"mobil-one 20w50 v-twin or amsoil 20w50 in both reservoir and primary." "mostly Mobil-1 v-twin 20w50 in both holes". I maybe reading this wrong but are you saying that you use the same oil in the transmission AND the engine? | ||
| Yamafreak |
amsoil 60wt. both holes! She loves it. | ||
| Uly_man |
Yes seems that you can. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The real "transmission oils" will have extra modifiers. These modifiers: 1) Will hold up much better under applications where many gears are engaging each other (trying to cut the oil up). 2) Would leave incredibly destructive deposits if they ever made it into a combustion chamber. 3) Smell really bad. The normal oil works fine in the transmission, but will need to be replaced more often. I think the full syn tranny oil is rated for a 10,000 change interval, and even that is probably conservative. | ||
| Tempest766 |
re: uly_man...yup. That's another reason I use the heavier oil, so that I can use it in both holes...and I don't ride below mid 50s so I'm not worried about hard starting with the thick oil. | ||
| Krabykarl |
Anybody ever rig a catch can? I'm new to this v twin thing. I have a catch can on my Dodge new hemi and it grabs 1/2 cup of oil every change. | ||
| Etennuly |
and it grabs 1/2 cup of oil every change. Is it really oil, or water vapor/oil spooge? I hate preaching the oil thing, but the SM and Owners Manual both say use straight 60W in high temps. This proved out for me on my then new '05 City X. On one hot summer oil change I went from HD's non syn oils to Mobil 1 V Twin 20/50. ALL of that oil disappeared in 300 miles of 90F+ temps! I took it to HD who wanted to tear it down to look for problems, when someone recommended following the book on oils. 2.5 qts of 60W and it was fixed. No more oil in the air box and out the PVC system. In my Uly the full syn did not disappear, but it sure made for a noisy rock polisher! This problem seems to come up every year's first hot summer month.  | ||
| Krabykarl |
It's all oil. Doesn't even smell bad like it's fouled with crankcase vapors like one would think. I take that as the catch can separates the oil out as it's supposed to. I run Mobil1 5w40 in the car Mobil1 20w50 in the Ulysses. No noticeable blow by in the bike. As you said the Uly motor sure makes a lot of top end chatter. | ||
| Tootal |
It was mentioned above about using gear oil. I know we are talking about oils and noise but just so nobody gets any idea's about running gear oil in the tranny I just want to remind the folks that don't already know that gear oil is a no no in the Buell. The tranny oil is shared with the primary oil and gear oil additives will kill your stator. Even Amsoil recommends their motor oils in the tranny but not their gear oils. I know most people know this but for those new comers to Buell's I just wanted to let them know, just in case! | ||
| Sagehawk |
pix of breather catch can.  | ||
| Tempest766 |
re: etennully -- I would love to be able to run a heavier oil in my bike but can't risk not being able to get it started if I happen to camp/tour down through WV and the temp drops to 50 overnight...and then there really isn't much of a hot running viscosity difference between 20w50 and sae60 anyway, right? So I agree that running the heavier oil is preferable but with it comes the risk of running the battery dead if it gets cold out. re: sagehawk -- I like your catch can the best of what I've seen because it looks like you don't need to screw with any T adapters in the air-box. Any photos of how you redirected the tubes from the PCV to the can? | ||
| Etennuly |
I have ridden my bike into the great North in the summer many times with the 60W starting out from East Tennessee. I have started it in temps as low as 30F in late summer early mornings. I just let it idle to warm up for a while. Never had a start failure.....a little slow cranking sure  .....but never failed to start. | ||
| Uly_man |
Tempest766. I have run my 06 and 10 bikes at less than 30f and they start fine even if a little slow. This bike has a dry sump so the crank does not need to "drive" through a sump full of cold/thick oil. Which is most of the problem on very cold days with a wet sump. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Tempest 766: this is a science experiment in the making for a while. have one on the flhr as well. hoses just come off the pcv valves behind and in front of coil, down left side, popped holes for them in air scoop to come to can. kind of dodgy taking it off and on with loose ends everywhere. just use tye wraps on all connections. I'm thinking the hot air hits cold pvc and thats where sweating is so bad as this thing makes water! A couple of tablespoons minimum between fill ups. also, motor is rolled in these pictures, and i don't have pix of top of rockers and how i have run hoses. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Tempest 766: these are two other pix of how i terminated a breather at end of catch can. had to resize photos to up load. see how it turns out.   | ||
| Turf_moor |
Tempest, I don't know where you are but there's a bloke in England who has produced an airbox mod, which sorts this problem. Basically it consists of a series of rubber tubes which reroute the surplus oil through an escape tube, which runs down next to the oil cooler. It has a bung in it, which you remove periodically to get rid of the gunge. He is called Maz and has a Buell workshop in Manchester. His mod has been taken on by the only pro Buell H-D dealership in the country. If you are in England give him a ring on 01613433077. I have it on my 06 Uly. | ||
| Etennuly |
There was another problem in the air box back when. If the breather hoses stick up too high they were sucking oil into the air cleaner with I guess too much vacuum. They should be no more than about 3/8 ths of an inch above their grommets. | ||
| Uly_man |
Mazzzy. What a "toss pot". A guy who makes a big deal over the maintenance of a bike that needs very little. Here is a guy that has done more to ruin the reputation of Buell than HD has ever done. And yes I have had dealings with him in the past. Mr "your bike is crap because it has crap choc cams" no nothing. And yes I can ride to Dunkfuck to talk about how about crap your advice was? Ah bless, Dude. Are you going to give us your "ANGRY MAN" routine Maz. |
