engine guru's
 

Thought I would get a little help here as I'm at a loss,Guy just ran this problem by me,seems he bought a new softail (2013,1600miles) and never having owned one before thought it would be a good idea to start it in cold weather just to warm it up.He started it with 3/4 tank of gas,got distracted and left it run till it ran out of gas.Thing got so hot it melted the plastic oil line fittings,turned the exhaust covers blue.Now it's vibrating like crazy at idle and gets worse as it's wound up,getting worse as rpms increase.Any idea's what damage it has?No knocking,no squeeking just vibrating like an old shovel with a loose top mount.Thanks guy's for anything and everything you might come up with.

Wow. 3/4 tank idling.

More than likely he killed the motor. Start teardown and inspection.

are you sure this didn't happen a long time ago?? (or is there more than one guy who could actually do this)YEARS ago someone posted a almost identical post,i said the guy must be a friggin idiot to forget about his bike running for HOURS (I assume it would take over 8+ hours to idle thru that much gas),i got a reprimand from the mods for " disrespecting another member"

WOW……..please post pics :icon_munching: you can hear my Harley idling from the 2nd floor of my house

Smeared the pistons at the very least, and once apart I have a mental list of what is going to be found.
Scott

He's a farmer with a little experience with air cooled tractors and didnt mention what distracted him it's calving season so maybe thats it.Doesnt seem real upset about it just wants it fixed.Anyone think he might be wiser to take it to the dealer and just put a new engine in it?Or have it factory rebuilt so he can keep some kind of warranty?Kinda obvious he will need it.

April 1st is around the corner... the farmer had a bike that ran a tank of gas becuase it was calving season.

C'Mon.

As an aside.... MOCO does just this thing with bikes out in the desert. Put it inside of a tent, and let it idle all day. Then go ride it. So... I'm NOT buying this story for a second.

I"ll buy it, showed up at my friends house and he left his Softtail idling to recharge his battery! It was smoking all around the top of the engine then he shut it off. We were still able to go on a ride but I was a little worried for him.

Time to make lemonade from the lemons..............and that won't happen via the dealer re-man program, which S&S does btw.
We can certainly attend to it, and the brown truck allows for that to occur quite easily.
Scott

Scotty can fix him up for sure.