‘18 Deluxe, full OEM Stage 1, 2,800 miles. Only issue was a bit of synth oil being sprayed on the fake oil box cover: turns out that I need to remove the stock A/C cover every now and then and clean some of the gunk that accumulates on the bottom interior edge of it.

 

Crap! The oil pump problem.... 😒

I completely understand that likely one in 100 may have oil pump problems, but the work your dealer did to resolve this would have been a costly expense. Cudos to your dealer, they could have buttoned it up with funky pistons.

 

At times there is a bit of oil in the A/C. Not much but enough to annoy me. Here is a solution. Route to a catch can. Did this on my tourer and my fatboy.

 

Yeah those guys are good people and trustworthy. The oil pump itself was fine just the oil pump plate that came on the bike had a seal that was a separate o-ring. Apparently this caused the oil puking out of the breather bolts.

I haven't heard of any other Softails having this issue but it is something to look for. Since the updated plate was installed I don't have any oil coming out of the breathers at all.

The intake stays nice and clean and only gets the oily film on it after a few thousand miles. But no drips at all anymore inside or out.

I since went to an external breather and it was always dry as well. I put my stock air cleaner back on and may just modify it for external breathers but haven't decided yet.

 

That is a solution but I bet if you replaced the oil pump plate even your catch can would stay dry like my air cleaner did and external breather filter does after the updated plate was installed.

I get no oil accumulation at all anymore and don't have to clean any oil from the air cleaner box or external breather filter and at all.

 

I did not have oil on the AF. I only had a very small amount of oil film. Did not like that.
Also, as DK customs puts it, I'd rather have cool fresh air going into my throttle body instead of dirty air with some engine vapor.
I don't even have 1 of the hoses going to a catch can. The other hose does go to a catch can and doesn't get noticeable oil it, just vapor that I empty every now and then. This is just the way I have always like doing it since I have been riding Harleys since 2006.

 

18,000 trouble free miles on my ‘18 Heritage 114 with SE stage 2 torque cam.

I know you have your doubts about the Street Tuner, but after having every bike I’ve ever owned over the last 4 decades dyno tuned to the teeth by solid guys, I have to say the Street Tuner runs flawlessly with whatever pipe I’ve run on it. Might I be able to wring a few more drops of power out of it with something more aggressive? Possibly, but I can’t state strongly enough how well this thing runs as is. Just fantastic spot on delivery of power and grunt. Your past stock Twin Cam or Evo modding / tuning requirements is not going to translate fully to this new motor. I’d say start with the Street Tuner for a few thousand miles and see what you think. Might as well break it in under warranty anyway.

 

Understood. I thought u were saying u had to clean up oil now and then instead of the oily mist. My bad.

I agree with not wanting the hot oily air going back into the engine. I had their Outlaw 606 air cleaner and filter style external breather on my bike but the K&N filter seems to loose the oil and fades to white within a day or two after cleaning and re-oiling it. I am just worried that the filter isn't doing its job as well when the oil fades out and don't want to be oiling it every few days.

Thinking of just modifying my stock air cleaner with external breathers like you did. Mine just has a different style of breather tubes than yours and I haven't explored ideas of how to go about doing it.

 

I totally agree about the K&N. I don't use K&N anymore. I use the stock 114 AC and filter. I like that much better (use it on both my bikes as seen below). The tubes you that I used to vent see are not stock. Those I had from a '14 (round AC type) streetglide. They worked very well for what I wanted to do there. I still have the stock rubber tubes just in case.

 

Yeah those look like they work very well. I've thought about connecting vent hoses directly to the breather bolt nipples but I have no way of securing them to the breather bolts. No room for zip ties or anything else and they don't stay on very well without something holding them tight.

Maybe I should ask if the shop here has any of those old breather tubes laying around the shop.