My 02 RK started smoking last night. It has never used oil before. 2,000 miles ago I had the SE oil pump and tensioner upgrade done. It was low on oil last night and I added a quart. I rode about 50 miles and it is low again. It would sporadically smoke. Any ideas?

 

Valve seals?

 

Need to pull the plugs and do a leak down test... Probably rings.
Kinda fast for valve seals but still a possibility.

 

white smoke from the exhaust on acceleration is worn/ bad piston ring seal

white smoke on decel is worn valve seals, cracked head

When it smokes will show if the problem is in the cylinder ( accel) or heads ( decel).

oil burns white, gas burns black

( and on your car tranny fluid burns white constantly and is a bad vacuum servo/modulator on the tranny)


so when do you see smoke?

make sure you are not leaking oil, throw a piece of cardboard under the bike and see if it stays clean

2.) check to see if oil is in the primary- oil can get through a bad seal into the primary case..if the level is over full, that's where yer oil is



mike

 

No oil under bike. Worst smoking was steady speed on the hiway.

 

Well white smoke isnt generally oil which will normally be a very blue color smoke or hazy blue color smoke.

White smoke on an air cooled bike is either condensation when motor/ex system is warming up when riding on a very cold day or a coolant issue letting coolant enter intake and or combustion chamber for whatever the reason with a water cooled bike motor.

White smoke with car/truck (not normally bike in this case) can also be where auto trans fluid is sucked into intake due to a bad modulator valve/diaphram thats ripped/punctured allowing trans fluid past it on older generation auto trans.

I guess if someone was running ATF in the primary case and that somehow made it into the motors induction system that could cause white smoke too, but i think that would be hard to do on a HD ,maybe not possibile at all.

It seems a though this came on kinda sudden from that he said so if it were me just to re-verify i truely had a problem before doing leak down tests etc id get the bike hot,stop and ensure oil lvl is where it should be between the low and hi makes and not over filled.

Then id take a 100-150 mile rode on open road cruising at 65-70mph and then stop with motor still hot and check oil is same way with motor still hot and bike at same angle on lvl ground like when you checked it before the ride to ensure its in fact started using oil when it didnt prior to installing the new oil pump etc.

If it is suddenly using oil now did you change cams at the same time maybe increasing cyl pressure causing older used rings to loose some seal/started having blowby due to inc cyl pressure with diff cams?

Scott

 

Update, my neighbor said it has been smoking. I checked compression, 200 lbs front and rear.

 

If it used a quart in 50 miles, it would look like it was on fire when the exhaust was hot and pumping oil out the end of the pipes. (in my opinion) Start it up cold. Let it idle a couple minutes at around 1500-2000 holding the throttle open slightly. Turn it off. Check the oil level. Should be midway on the stick. Now with bike level and on a jack. Screw out the tapered plug and see how much oil is in sump. On your bike, I think it is the one in my sketch that says do not remove words. (not the other do not remove plug on the actual oil bag bolted to the bottom of the transmission) Should be about 16 ozs but no more. Apply proper sealer on taper pipe plug and tighten carefully since its very easy to split block with this plug, If you are not familiar with pipe plugs, scribe a line on it and when you put sealer on it, do not screw it past the line.
How many miles on motor? Ever been overheated? When it is pumping oil through, that in itself can increase compression. Obliviously, valves are not leaking but if someone did not align oil pump correctly, it got damaged and it is sumping, there could be so much oil up in the head that it is coming by the valve seals. Remember, what Harley calls a upgrade with the SE oil pump and tensioner only replaced the outer chain. You still have the link inner chain that you need to keep an eye on that tensioner.

 

Thanks, ripsaw, I will check it tonight.

 

Another thing you can check is your air breather. If it's stopped up it will pull air from where ever it can. This includes the breather vents in the heads, which will in turn cause it to pull oil as well. This could explain your smoking and oil consumption.

2010 Limited with some stuff!!