Alright. So I just finished riding the gold bagger I recently assembled to the WHCM '08. I rode from MD to NC on Wednesday (~400 miles), rode around with
a bunch of other HCMF's all week, and then rode back. Bike has a serious issue. Here's the deal, on the ride down the bike was pretty good. The only
small issue was that the oil tank leaked a little out the cap and the engine leaked a little out the tach-cable. When I got down there I found that the gasket
on the oil-tank cap was missing. Nothing big. I rode around all week and still no problems. She would purr along at 85mph all day, start in one kick, etc,
etc. I was feeling great.
Fast forward to this morning. I got a different oil-tank cap with a good gasket, it sealed up nice and snug. We rolled out at 10am for the long ride back to MD (me and TurboGrimace). 16 miles out we stopped at a gas station just before hitting the highway. I noticed a thin trail of oil over the alternator cover. I figured it was just from the tach-cable again so I gassed up and ignored it. I would later find out that my Matt noted a little smoke from my exhaust on startup as well. We hit the highway and everything felt fine again. 80mph, no misses or anything, no lights, nothing was wrong. Nothing I could see atleast. Behind me my Matt was apparently getting sprayed with oil. He pulled ahead of me and flagged me over at about 100 miles into the ride and we hit a gas station. My bike was COVERED with oil. It was all over the front, back, sides, bags, seat, EVERYWHERE. Couldn't tell where it was coming from, no obvious trails or anything. The bike was also smoking pretty heavily from the exhaust.
To save you the gory details we limped it all the way home with lots of oil stops. After cooling off (the bike and myself) I checked things back over and I noticed something interesting. The oil tank is pressurizing. 3-5 seconds after starting the bike there is enough pressure in the tank to cause an audible hiss I can hear over my aftermarket exhaust. I'm gonna guess this is why oil sprays out of my motor. I can't see where the oil is coming from, but it's either the cam-tower plugs or the headgasket. I can figure two options here:
1.) I have so much blow-by that the oil system is pressurizing and forcing oil past gaskets. I doubt this, however, because the engine does run very smooth and does not appear to have lost a cylinder.
2.) Blown headgasket. I'm guessing this is it. The symptoms seem to fit too well.
Anyone care to comment? Again, the symptoms are pressure in the oiltank (lots of pressure) and a leak with no apparent origin that covers everything in oil coupled with smoke from the exhaust when warmed up (pretty heavy smoke that it never had before). This sucks, because I just put this bike together and now I've got nothing to ride again.
Fast forward to this morning. I got a different oil-tank cap with a good gasket, it sealed up nice and snug. We rolled out at 10am for the long ride back to MD (me and TurboGrimace). 16 miles out we stopped at a gas station just before hitting the highway. I noticed a thin trail of oil over the alternator cover. I figured it was just from the tach-cable again so I gassed up and ignored it. I would later find out that my Matt noted a little smoke from my exhaust on startup as well. We hit the highway and everything felt fine again. 80mph, no misses or anything, no lights, nothing was wrong. Nothing I could see atleast. Behind me my Matt was apparently getting sprayed with oil. He pulled ahead of me and flagged me over at about 100 miles into the ride and we hit a gas station. My bike was COVERED with oil. It was all over the front, back, sides, bags, seat, EVERYWHERE. Couldn't tell where it was coming from, no obvious trails or anything. The bike was also smoking pretty heavily from the exhaust.
To save you the gory details we limped it all the way home with lots of oil stops. After cooling off (the bike and myself) I checked things back over and I noticed something interesting. The oil tank is pressurizing. 3-5 seconds after starting the bike there is enough pressure in the tank to cause an audible hiss I can hear over my aftermarket exhaust. I'm gonna guess this is why oil sprays out of my motor. I can't see where the oil is coming from, but it's either the cam-tower plugs or the headgasket. I can figure two options here:
1.) I have so much blow-by that the oil system is pressurizing and forcing oil past gaskets. I doubt this, however, because the engine does run very smooth and does not appear to have lost a cylinder.
2.) Blown headgasket. I'm guessing this is it. The symptoms seem to fit too well.
Anyone care to comment? Again, the symptoms are pressure in the oiltank (lots of pressure) and a leak with no apparent origin that covers everything in oil coupled with smoke from the exhaust when warmed up (pretty heavy smoke that it never had before). This sucks, because I just put this bike together and now I've got nothing to ride again.
