Decided to re-tighten my crankcase vent banjo bolts that lead to a drain hose setup. When I pulled the front cylinder bolt, there was a LOT of water/oil sludge in both the bolt and the head hole. The rear hole was fine, and I drained a little oil from the engine and no sludge in there.

What could have caused the sludge in that part of the engine and how concerned should I be?

 

Was the bike warmed up first? You may have just had that from condensation. Go for a good ride and try again.

 

Normal. A little sludge steems off when at riding temp.

 

Its a sign of too many short journeys, give it a long, hard thrashing and it will go away.

 

In addition to comments above it is also a by-product of additives in the oil you are using. You may find a change to a different brand will either make it worst, or improve it! I had problems many years ago with a popular brand of oil on one of my bikes and a change of brand solved it completely.

 

Sounds good, fellers. I'm supposed to go on a nice long ride next week so we'll see how she does.

 

Well, 650 miles complete over two days. Haven't pulled the vent bolt yet to look, but I did have a lot of oil leak out after the final 200 miles. They were pretty fast and a lot of wide open throttle during that last part. I think maybe the.vent bolt on my front cylinder is the culprit in the leak, but exactly how much oil should be coming out of there? I'll post pics in a few, but this seemed like a lot more oil than what I have heard described here. Looking around the bike, that bolt seems to be where most of the oil is pooling, but I'm going to go over it real well and see if it is coming out of anywhere else.

does anyone know off hand how much oil is coming out of the crank vent at around 3k to 4k for extended periods?

 

Check oil level maybe overfilled . I always keep the oil a little below the dipstick

 

Im no expert here as your bike is a different year than mine but i cant remember seeing a crankcase vent hose being installed with a banjo fitting.
They are usually a simple hose and gear clamps as there is very little pressure involved.? I have learned that the Harley motor has a very complicated oiling system but this being said , the crankcase breather hose should either be routed back to the intake or simply dump out to the ground .? Are you sure you are dealing with the correct hoses ?