2018 M8----Sumping? Failures?
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Yes some stock 107s have sumped, and yes some CVO Stage IV bikes haven't sumped. But the percentage of likelihood of sumping seems to point to there being something about either the wethead design, or the 117 cylinders, that makes a bike disproportionately susceptible to sumping.
As for multiple engines in a row -- I think I've heard of three reports of that. Two were CVO Stage IV owners, so ... yeah, that would happen. The odd outlier is Keith Hu, who has a stock 107 and drives it sanely, yet had three engines sump. I don't know how to explain that other than to say that there simply must have been something else contributing to the issue, whether a plugged oil cooler or maybe he had the same kind of issue as hrdtail has pointed out with the oiler, or he was the one in a million unlucky guy, I don't know.
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From: TN
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Yes, the Softail engine is an M8, but I'm not sure what the exact differences are between an M8 motor in a Softail and an M8 motor in a Touring model. Different counter-balancers? Different percent reduction in perceived vibration? Since I don't know what's causing the sumping, I have no clue how the differences between the two motors plays into it all.
Curious, indeed.
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What is not known, and/or has not been divulged by the MoCo, is what percentage of sumping occurs in what motors. Based on purely anecdotal evidence, such as threads on "HDForums.com", the 117 motor appears to be the worst, by far. Given that the problems are not getting better with each motor iteration, but are getting worse, that is not a good thing.
Again, I have no personal spies in Milwaukee feeding me information, I just read **** on the internet.
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From: Texas
That's why I and so many others get perturbed when people come out throwing grenades in discussions saying "it just hasn't happened to you YET" and "all these M8s are ticking time bombs!!!#@!!!#@!". Those are just categorically false statements.
The facts appear to be:
CVOs sump.
Stage IVs sump.
Regular touring bikes rarely sump.
Softails practically never sump.
Last edited by FatBob2018; Feb 13, 2019 at 10:29 AM.
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What's your point? Tens of thousands of others haven't either
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From: Texas
According to the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, as communicated to all dealerships via the updates to the service bulletin, sumping is known to occur in all stock Milwaukee 8 motors, including stock 107, 114, and 117 cubic inch motors, in model years 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Regarding 2017 and 2018's, you are correct. Harley acknowledges it CAN occur on all engine configurations. And we've even had a report here of a (repeat, a single) Softail that sumped. It is possible. It just appears to be a situation that doesn't happen with any substantial frequency in certain configurations.
What is not known, and/or has not been divulged by the MoCo, is what percentage of sumping occurs in what motors. Based on purely anecdotal evidence, such as threads on "HDForums.com", the 117 motor appears to be the worst, by far.
Given that the problems are not getting better with each motor iteration, but are getting worse, that is not a good thing.
We have heard of a few 2019s sumping, but as far as I know they were the earliest manufactured models which did not include the new cam plate & seal which is standard on all 2019 models made after a certain date. And, if I'm not mistaken, those 2019s that did sump were CVOs (could be wrong about that). I don't know that I've heard of a non-CVO 2019 sumping.
Last edited by FatBob2018; Feb 13, 2019 at 10:33 AM.
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From: Cranbourne, VIC Australia
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From: Cranbourne, VIC Australia
I don't know all the differences by any means, as I haven't gotten to play with any M8 softies yet. But I do know the Softail M8s have twin counter balancers and the touring M8s only have a single counter balancer. Plus they mount differently, and have different offsets built in, I also think the sumps are of a different design/configuration as the cases are not the same.
Last edited by skid_pimp; Feb 13, 2019 at 11:09 AM.