You can get a good idea by just shining a strong flashlight through the front screen of the air filter cover. Make sure you do it in a darkened garage. You should see the front of the air filter and the bottom of the cover through the screen. Enough to determine if you have a problem.

 

Oil on the filter only makes it filter better. The one way popet valves are one way out only, so that does not stop oil.
You do not want the termination end any place but where it is because only air is drawn into the throttle body with the oil falling out and catching in the bottom of the filter housing..
Hurts nothing.

 

 

[QUOTE=TriGeezer;17597139]YES,YES,YES. This is so very important and yet it is so often ignored.

 

I've never really understood the basic reasoning behind this. How can the oil level in the remote tank actually affect oil consumption and blow-by in a dry-sump engine? IMO, it shouldn't have any affect at all as long as there is SOME air space in the tank.

Every H-D I've owned was/is run at the full-hot mark with no problems. My '15 uses no measurable amount of oil between 3000 mile changes on H-D dino.

If anybody knows the actual, physical reasoning behind the claim that varying the air space in the oil tank by 3/8" or so can affect consumption etc, please post your thoughts if you have the time.

Thanks,

JP

 

[QUOTE=Retrop;17598773]that has been the sweet spot where things settle down from my experience on my M8

 

The breathers are all the way up in the heads. Oil is pumped up thru the pushrods from the hydraulic lifters to lubricate the top end. If the engine is hot, adding oil to the full mark on the dipstick does not increase vent air. High-speed operation does. Letting bike sit weeks does by allowing the tramp oil that does fall out of the vent air that settles in the line runs down and when you take the bike out makes it appear to release a lot of oil at one time. Driven regularly, bikes will have oil in the filter box, however. Just part of there engineering since there is limited room to catch 100% of the fine oil mist caught up in the vent air from the downward travel of the piston and a little blow by escaping the rings between their gaps that are necessary for heat expansion..
The tin men who would sell their soul for a $$ have capitalized on this by spreading a lot of false BS

 

The oil bag and crank case are connected via an air port to provide a shared space (volume) to compress air when then pistons come down.
Larger that space, less pressure, less air out the breathers. Smaller that space, higher the pressure and thus more air out the breathers.

When you put more oil in the oil bag you take up more of that air space making the available air volume smaller... thus higher case pressure, more air out the breathers.

Science.

Furthermore, an air filter designed to be oiled (K&N) filters better when oiled, but an oil filter designed to be dry (HD) will clog choking the engine and staving it of air.
A clogged air filter will pull more air out of the breathers.

 

So, I THINK you're saying that the oil level in the tank has no real effect on oil consumption or oil in the filter box, sumping etc..

If so, then I agree 100%.

Thanks,

JP