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I just noticed some hot air blowing on my leg as I rode today. The exhaust seems a bit louder, lost some power and after a closer look, the exhaust leak seems to be coming from near the pushrod tube, rather than the exhaust pipe itself. I can feel it right behind the air filter. I also noticed a touch of oil on the rod. Do you know what this could be? Blown head gasket? Bad rod oring?
type of bike, mileage, all help. with bike running, take a piece of thin paper strip and pass it around the head where noise is coming from, then pass it around exhaust port, see where it moves, smoke also works well for this. I"m betting on a bad exhaust gasket, over a head gasket, but anything is possible
loss of back pressure, changes the tune, also oxygen introduced into exhaust changes o2 content to sensor, throws off tune. Its hard to say without better info, but headgaskets don't go bad that often. (certainly they can though!) I just think the exhaust wasn't installed properly and exhaust gasket blew. He said "some power". If there is loss of compression, it should seem significant of the power loss. Again we aren't there and OP isn't a lot of help with info. we will see. I hope for his sake that I am right, its an easier fix
I agree that an exhaust leak will cause a certain amount of power loss. It will affect the air/fuel ratio, especially on a carbureted engine. Hopefully, that's all it is. I'm betting it is.
Hoping you aren't a "one & done" poster, but just in case...my .02...oil behind the breather is normal, but need to know more about your bike to assess the issue. Throw us a meatier bone...it's a ????? Harley with ??????? upgrades and ??????...you get my point, right?
Sorry for the super super late response. Haha. It was a bad head gasket, which I believe stemmed from a tune up at a non -Harley shop. I started to notice it shortly after. My guess is they moved it and it just happened to break the seal. I ended up tearing it apart and replacing it, and soon after sold it, and never came back on this forum. Haha. 😬 But, I recently picked up an '07 Sportster 1200 XL50 so I'm back. I appreciate the advice you guys gave though.
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Help me, please?
