Harley leak/drip due to viscosity?

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Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Last Evo big twin was in 1999 models. So this is a Twin Cam.

Evo's do not need a genuine HD filter. You can use any that is made for the application such as a Wix. Last I heard the HD filters were made by Champ Labs.



I didn't say you needed a Genuine filter, but you have to watch what you put on an Evo. Oil filter link
 
Ok this is just getting bizarre. I installed a catch can (you can see in the pic below, and plugged what used to be the breather vent in the backing plate with a vacuum cap. Went on a ride yesterday and STILL had oil in the intake!!!!! How the heck could this be????? There is only the one breather vent there and it effectively doesn't exist anymore, so I'm just baffled. Bike runs fine.

Also, it's definitely engine oil, when I wipe the backing plate it with a white cloth it's amber colored oil. If I dab the air cleaner it's red.

Does anyone have any idea how this could be?


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BTW Durango I got your pics thanks. May come in handy, I had already installed the catch can but we'll see how that goes.

Also also BTW the catch can is defiantly working, I checked it and although it doesn't have a lot of oil I can tell it's getting mist because of the smell.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Doog
Dude: next time put a stay free mini pad inside the air cleaner "football" cover if you have a cover. This is not a joke. My lowrider would drip occasionally. 1 pad...done.

It is normal for a Harley engine to push oil out the air filter when driven on the highway for long periods.
So much for the macho Howley tradition.


LOL...yeah I know....
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The mechanic I learned it from is this huge guy with tattoos and when he went into his tool box and pulled out a stay free mini pad I cracked up.
 
Update..................I think I got to the bottom of what was happening. Quick recap, the oil carryover problem seemed to coincide just as I did an OCI changing to Valvoline 4T syn 20w50 from Rotella 15w40, also at which time I also cleaned and oiled the K&N air filter. First attempt to fix was to install a Golan catch can so that the heads no longer vent to the breather. Seems to do its job however I still saw some oil residual in the breather, even though the heads no longer vented there! Some red (obviously K&N filter oil), some amber (presumably engine oil). Stumped.

Here's the weird part, and what looks to have solved the problem in my case. Each time I checked to see of I fixed the oil drool, I cleaned the air filter with simple green then re-oiled with the red K&N oil. I thought it was odd that the filter stayed pretty red even after washing and soaking multiple times. I figured the filter material must've been stained by the dye.

Finally, being frustrated and out of ideas, I bought some K&N filter cleaner and use that instead of the simple green. All of a sudden ALL of that old oil in the filter washed right out, my sink was running red, the filter was grayish. I'm sure the motor oil in there came out too. No idea why, but obviously the simple green won't cut the K&N oil, so essentially what I was doing was overloading the filter with oil thinking the previous batch was cleaned out with the simple green cleaning. I think what I was seeing in the breather, once the catch can was installed, was the filter releasing oil it had sopped up before, moreso once it got hot and flowed easier.

Since proper cleaning with K&N cleaner, and still using the catch can, no more problems whatsoever. As a bonus venting to the catch can rather than the breather even remedied a small stumbling problem at low rpm when cold issue. I think the catch can works and is worth it, but any previous oil in the filter has got to get cleaned out with something that actually works.

I guess sometime recommended products, such as K&N cleaner for K&N filters and oil, aren't just snake oil. I'm generally skeptical of that sort of thing, but in this case there was some truth to it.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, maybe it'll help someone.
 
The main two filters oils on the market bio degradable and non biodegradable.

It takes a real solvent to break down the latter or the Real stuff.

Non biodegradable, plain water can have that stuff breaking down.
 
There are umbrella seals in the rocker covers that limit blow by which is what accumulates in the air cleaner box. The V Twin engine designs crankcase has large pressure spikes as the pistons near the bottom of the stroke. The umbrella seals vent the high pressure spike (with oil and moisture) into the air cleaner box. If they leak they allow air pressure to enter the crankcase when the umbrella seals should close and maintain low pressure. This raises the pressure every time the cycle of hi/low pressure happens and actually causes more blowby to enter the air cleaner box.
If your umbrella seals have never been serviced you are past due. 3 or 4 years max before they give up. They are fragile.
Joe
 
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