My 03 RK Police is blowin oil out the air cleaner. I was told to change to the screamin eagle air cleaner which I did, but it didn't solve the problem. It doesn't appear to use oil or smoke but sure makes a damn mess, oil blows up onto the seat, saddle bag, rider and drips down the side of the engine. I thought at first I'd just overfilled it, but have check that and it isn't overfull of oil. The bike runs fine and doesn't foul plugs.

Anybody else have this problem or a solution other than rebuilding the top end?

 

Sooner or later you will switch to a K&N. If your cold oil reading is halfway between the marks, ya got a good level. A little higher and it can get into the air cleaner....gotta be using oil if it's blowin' it out!

 

This isn't a unique problem. The oil blow by from the cylinders is vented into the air cleaner assembly. Some suggestions where to start are:

1. Check to make sure oil isn't overfull. Also, some guys see this when running the engine hard for a long period of time.
2. Check to make sure the vent tubes aren't blocked and are properly hooked up so the oil goes into the manifold.
3. If your build is such that it can't handle oil blow-by in that manner, there are vent tubes that will direct the oil down to the ground or into a little catch filter.

I'm sure some smarter guys will chime in with more information and links to helpful products.

Good luck.

 

I'm sure it is using a little oil, but not enough to require adding oil between changes. A tablespoon of hot oil blowing out of the air cleaner at highway speed still makes a nasty mess. THe oil level is about halfway between full and add when cold. It does blow out worse when ridden hard in hot weather. The bike has 25000 miles by the way so I'm sure has some blow by.

 

I run a Arlen Ness Big Sucker, its vented to the intake so the blow by is consumed. I also run bout a half qt low which seems to help.

 

My 01 Road King scared the crap out of me at Sturgis this year. We cruised the Bad Lands in 90 degree weather and on the way back to Rapid City the bike blew about 1/4 quart out the air cleaner. I took it to the dealer and he laughed and told me to take it easy in that kind of heat. He said it is a normal occurence. Didn't believe him so I called a couple more dealers, in Wyoming, and a local Rapid City bike shop and they all told me the same thing. They did recommend an oil cooler for the heat. My bike has 18,000 miles on it. I've been running a 1/4 quart low in the crank case and haven't had any more problems. I do get a drop or two on the cam cover every now and then. There's actually an article in American Iron, Sept. issue that talks about this problem.

 

Better explanation for oil dripping out your air filter, from: http://www.dohertymachine.com/easyri...bde56368e728e8
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Harley's Twin Cam 88 is a great motor. In stock from they make half again as much power as the Evo did and there are off-the-shelf kits to build them up to 124 inches. They have only one area of concern, which involves the cylinder head breather system. It seems that some motors pump oil out of the cylinder head breather passages into the air filter or whatever they are connected to. If your motor's breathers are routed to the air filter back plate, you could wind-up with a bit of oil running down your right leg after a long ride.

This is not a new problem. We first saw it back in 1999 and there appears to be more than one reaon for it. These include combustion gases leaking past the piston rings, incorrect alignment of the oil pump, poor sealing of the oil system's O-rings, not enough volume of the scavenge side of the oil pump and inadequate oil separation in the breather valve. Not all of these items occur in every motor; in fact we would be surprised to find one motor with all of them.

We think that the two biggest reasons for excessive oil blow-by are incorrect alignment of the oil pump and poor oil separation in the cylinder heads' breather valves. Most of the oil pump alignment problems are caused by inexperienced technicians who are installing camshafts and do not follow the correct oil pump alignment procedure when the reinstall the cam plate. The poor oil separation up in the cylinder heads is caused by the stock breather valves being overwhelmed by the volume of oily/air mist that gets up to the valves during a really hard ride.

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I had to go to a Ness Big Sucker. No more oil.

 

Theproblem is more than likely the breather valves in the heads. The 02'and '03 models had plastic valves with the rubber diaphrams and they fail. In '04 they changed to an aluminum valve assembly and it solves the problem. Go to the dealer and get a new set of rocker box gaskets for both rocker boxes and two breather valves and change them out and you will be good to go. I have fixed 4 bikes for friends so far with the same issue.

Good luck and email if you need any other help.

 

If you have the "A" motor, S&S TC88 breather valve should cure the problem. It uses 4 reed valves.