@98hotrodfatboy - Yes, we are running the VOES. Thanks for the tip

So, more news. Had my baby at HD of Richmond to make thr final few adjustments as well as get a new front tire (old wltire was dangerously old). Got a call yesterday from my mechanic with some news: apparently when they went to go start my bike after making all of the adjustments and doing all the work we needed it was smoking so badly that it filled up their shop (its a smaller service area, but not a shoe box) with smoke. Gene, the guy who is the head over at our service place that we trust with all of our stuff, was a little alarmed by the fact that it was smoking as much as it was.

His thoughts were that since we replace the piston rings with moly rings and not General Factory piston rings that that might be the issue. In his experience he has seen a couple applications were there Molly Rings never get seated quite right causing the motorcycle to smoke, and wanted to know what we wanted to do with our motorcycle now that it's all finished up.

What's weird is that the first hundred and fifty two hundred seventy miles and I rode on this bike after replacing the piston and rings we took it easy follow the break-in procedure and didn't have any kind of smoking problems up to this point. So we're kind of left scratching our heads with what the issue may be.

Anybody else run into this kind of problem previously, and if so what was your fix? Me and my old man think that we might as well let her run maybe a thousand miles before we decide to tear the engine apart and change out the Rings. As of right now the new piston rings only have about a hundred and seventy-five miles on them.

 

Shouldn't really be smoking that bad, but I'd run it a few hundred more before opening it up again. If it is till smoking after another 300 or so, you may wanna look and see why..

Type/color of smoke makes a difference too. If you swapped cams without cleaning up the valve stems, you can have guide issues sometimes on high mileage motors.


Griz

 

Some more pics after my 250 mile ride yesterday.

 

Thanks Griz - it's definitely burning oil - can't mistake that color and smell. Also, we're still under 30k miles, so it's still damn near a new bike mechanically.



So here's the skinny - me and my old man made the trip to pick my bike up from the Dealership. I think 'a lot of smoke' to them and to us are two very different things, as it only smoked a little at start up. I think the fact it smoked at all freaked them out which surprises me, but hey - I get it. They don't wanna touch anything that seems like it could be a financial liability.

So anyhoo - I rode it hope without issue (aside from needing timing and rejetted) on Saturday, and then put about 253 miles on it yesterday - mixed driving (some city stop'n'go, some interstate, lots of state highways and twist turn roads in KY) and didn't have any issues, no smoke, only a smile stretching ear to ear.

At this point, we know it's some burning oil based on the smoke color. We don't think it's the rings because we're not amateurs (well, I sorta am, pops has been fixing petrol vehicles for going on 50yrs). We're pretty sure it's leaky valve seals as it doesn't smoke all the time - only after it's set for more than 24hrs. So this week I'm testing the 'how long does it need to sit before smoke appears' test with a 48hr down time and 72hr down time between rides. More to come on this.

Since I have it back I'll probably also do the timing myself at this point. Now's as good a time as any to learn to DIY.

Hopefully I'll have a bunch more pictures as the weather in SW Ohio is looking particularly nice this coming wekend (70's and sunny)

 

Oh yeah, and I scored these 5gal OEM tanks in immaculate condition for $175, so I'll be taking off the original tins and putting them in a safe place and really making this ride my style with a custom paint job.

 

When I first got my bike it had a brand new harley reman motor in it.
When it was cold and I started it smoke would come from the rear jug.
It went away when the motor warmed up.

Fast forward a few years and when I went to 9.5 -1 pistons I had to have the jugs bored.
When I dropped them off the tech checked them and said one wasn't bored correctly last time. Not by much just a little bit.

That could be what you are seeing.

 

Bad valve seals will show their true colors on deceleration. Once the motor is up to temp have your pop drive it and you follow, bring second gear up to 4500 rpm and then release the throttle and see if it smokes on decel bring it right down to 1500 rpm (no smoke, seals are ok) then have him bring it back up to 4500 rpm(no smoke, rings are ok). Vise versa to the smoke.. You can also remove the exhaust to look into the port and if the seals are indeed leaking you will see a trail down the valve.

 

So, good news: Still no visible oils leaks, and nothing in the engine exhaust after 48 hrs setting untouched. Tomorrow will be a 72hr benchmark which I'll start it up and take another spin. That'll also officially put 500+ miles overall ridden on the new setup.

 

So, still no visible leaks but oil consumption has been consistent. Decided to pull the heads and take a peek - rear cylinder confirmed a leaking valve seal. Consumed about a quart of oil over 2000 miles and change. I suspect when my dealership reassembled the heads that the old valve seal, being almost 30 yrs old, were old enough that the seals either got damaged on the reinstall or finally bit the dust due to age.

So, we'll be doing new valve seals. It's just too bad we didn't do this initially (learning error on my part). Hope to have all this work done within the next week or so and get back to road testing. I have a trip to Gatlinburg this October and one of my goals is to ride The Tail while I'm down there.

 

So pulled the heads and we were definitely leaking on the front cylinder intake and rear cylinder exhaust seals. There was quite a bit of carbon buildup on the back of those two valves (not the faces) and a little on the valve seats in the heads, which we cleaned off (sorry, no pics). The front piston has a little buildup on the face, nothing we couldn't clean off with the jugs still on but man oh man the rear cylinder needed work. So we yanked the jugs to pull the pistons to get a good clean on them both.

On a side note I FINALLY, after a year of scouring Craigslist, found a front and rear Heritage fender. Still need to test fit them to make sure they really are 84-99 vintage but ig the Lord smiles upon me we could be looking at a custom paint job by spring.