I'm trying to solve a mystery here. I recently changed the oil in my 2000 RK from Rotella 15w40 to Valvoline 4t 20w50 syn, and also cleaned and reoiled the K&N airfilter (it has the SE K&N kit). Since the change I've gotten a small amount of oil dripping out of the air filter housing. I've never once gotten this before so it has to be something to do with the new oil change. It's frustrating the [censored] out of me.
Here's what I know for sure: The air filter is definitely not over oiled, I was careful about that and also the drip is is amber whereas the filter oil is red. Also the engine oil sump is not overfilled, when hot it read exactly at the full mark. When I first saw the drip I removed 4 oz of oil, no change. Last night I removed another 8 oz, haven't ridden it yet so I'll see what happens. The hot reading is now just below halfway between the add and full marks.
I never had this problem with the 15w40. I'm suspecting that maybe the higher viscosity of the new oil was just just enough to cause an increase in pressure just enough to blow a bit of oil back out the breather vents. Maybe that combined with the high temps here in the summer, and also admittedly I've been riding a bit harder as of late. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me why this would start all of a sudden, but as I said I can't think of anything else.
One last tidbit, when I did the oil change I changed the filter as well. The refill took 4 qts exactly to get it to the full line when hot. I vaguely was expecting 3.5 qts but maybe my memory isn't correct. Regardless, full is full right?
Any wisdom out there on what's going on here?
Here's what I know for sure: The air filter is definitely not over oiled, I was careful about that and also the drip is is amber whereas the filter oil is red. Also the engine oil sump is not overfilled, when hot it read exactly at the full mark. When I first saw the drip I removed 4 oz of oil, no change. Last night I removed another 8 oz, haven't ridden it yet so I'll see what happens. The hot reading is now just below halfway between the add and full marks.
I never had this problem with the 15w40. I'm suspecting that maybe the higher viscosity of the new oil was just just enough to cause an increase in pressure just enough to blow a bit of oil back out the breather vents. Maybe that combined with the high temps here in the summer, and also admittedly I've been riding a bit harder as of late. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me why this would start all of a sudden, but as I said I can't think of anything else.
One last tidbit, when I did the oil change I changed the filter as well. The refill took 4 qts exactly to get it to the full line when hot. I vaguely was expecting 3.5 qts but maybe my memory isn't correct. Regardless, full is full right?
Any wisdom out there on what's going on here?
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