Oil Blowback from Intake/Breather??
 

My 103 CI, 2013 Street Glide has started getting a little bit of oil blowback coming out of my breather/intake at highway speeds that is getting on my right saddle bag and rear pipe where it comes out of the head. Not a lot, but just enough to be annoying and building up ever so slightly around the intake/air filter.......any ideas what could be causing this?

Man, thats the first I've heard of this! :)

https://www.google.com/search?q=blow...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=blow...e:hdforums.com

OH I hate that.....I tried searching this site for an hour before I posted and could not find anything.......LOL......thanks for the assistance. :icon_hyper:

My fix:

I picked up a couple of 1/4" barb---> 1/8 NPT fittings, a 1/4 barb T, a breather and some 1/4" fuel hose.

The only expensive part was the 1/8NPT tap.....

Drilled and tapped the SEAC, and ran the hose to the bottom of the bike. I didn't want to run any horizontal, as I don't want everything pooling, so it is almost straight down.

A couple of zip ties, and it's neatly hidden under, and in front, of the engine.

Should work...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psstdz4c8r.jpg

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I too had this problem. And so did my partner on his identical 09 road king,
 

[I

We both had run them hard for hours in hot weather.
I started using straight 50 w HD oil. It really never came back. My friend didn't and we never really ran them that hard again. Not that we didn't want to or were scared of the outcome but just never had the chance.
It was 95+ degrees w a full load and we ran 110 miles at 100mph. Pretty sure that is what did it. But good HD mechanics are aware of the situation. The oil builds up in the top of the head and doesn't drain back as fast as it should and eventually end s up in the breather. Breathers ain't cheap.

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Many threads and fix-ers on this subject and they all work well.....

http://www.dkcustomproducts.com/Twin-Cam-Model-Air-Cleaners_c77.htm

My '01 did that on a trip to Montana. Blew about a 1/4 cup to a half cup out. Local shop said they see it from time to time as people come in from lower elevations and pressures change. They felt the fix was less oil in the crankcase, nearly down to the fill line. No further problems with it since then.

i dont know what the fix is because i dont think there is one but i do know this. its much worse right after i clean and oil my stage 1 a/c.

Possibly because you put too much oil on your AC

I had that problem. Drove me crazy. Turns out I wasn't cleaning my filter good enough. So I bought some of K&N cleaner and sprayed the crap out of it and let it soak. 2 months and still not one drip.

Try running your engine oil 1/2 quart low.

According to some "experts" on this site, its because your bike was built on the wrong day of the week. Apparently, Wednesday is the optimum bike building day.

Just finished doing the breather to atmosphere on my '07 RK with the Arlen Ness Big Sucker.
I've never liked sending the misting oil to the combustion chamber like the
e p a wants us to.(yeah big brother always knows what's best huh...)
It was a piece of cake.
1)tapped some 1/4x20 threads in the holes where the umbrella valve mist dumps into the A/C plate.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdf...38bdcd0842.jpg

2)clean holes and setscrews and install with locktite and torque down real good.
3)locate where the holes are to be drilled for outlets on both tunnels of breather bolts. I wanted to put them on the flat spots hidden behind real good, but the fuel injection manifold would interfere with mounting, so I had to locate them more to the side.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdf...58968e48e6.jpg

4)drill 21/64" holes and tap 1/8 NPT threads and install 1/8NPT X 5/16" Barbed fittings.
5)run the hose to the bottom of the scooter and let it blow away into a catch can or a filter.

I've got 28,000 miles on the motor so I know I've got some carbon built up on the piston tops and heads.

So all this being said and done, my question is, would it be worth it to go ahead and do a water intake blow out to possibly loosen some of the carbon and blow it out the exhaust?
Or is it too risky as I've never done this and I don't want to hydro lock the motor.
Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

I'm going to do this and I think Frig's fix is real nice. Simple; hose diameter not unnecessarily large. However, the thought of set screws coming loose and being sucked into the motor scares me. Others have used sealants like silicone and I recall one member saying the material did not cure throughout and began to migrate through the passage. What do you guys think?

This was a very scary thought to me also jefla, the setscrews coming loose and going into the intake port/valve/chamber.
This is why I tapped them deep enough, yet able to bottom out, cleaned oil/grease and loctite them in place.
To be sure I will pull the air filter after a few miles and check them to be sure they are still tight.
I thought of silicone plugging them,but I've seen silicone shrink over years of heat and service.The thought of those silicone plugs getting sucked in was just as scary as the setscrew thought.
I feel a lot more comfortable with setscrews,tightened tight and loctite applied.

I think I've decided to also make a simple catch cannister from pvc pipe and fittings as described by rmacr913,,,,,,, many,many moons ago.

Makes no difference running 1/2 qt. low or all the way to the full mark......none.

Frig's mod is a nice one - only thing I would add is a little hi-temp RTV over those set screws and maybe use stainless tubing instead of fuel line.

i'm rigging up this jaz 1 pint mini surge tank on my bike, 1/4" fittings

Could one drill the back plate and push copper or stainless tubing into the hole and thus eliminate the threaded couplings? How about instead of a tight fit drill larger holes for a slightly loose fit that is sealed with RTV? The tubing could be secured using a bracket attached at one of the trans side door fasteners.

Where I can get about 5 feet of 1/4" SS tubing?

Disagree, it makes a difference on mine

If you go that route, my Arlen Ness Big Sucker holes in the backing plate for the head misting entry were small enough to tap 1/4 x 20 holes for the setscrews, without having to drill with proper bit size.
In other words, you'll need smaller tubing to insert into the holes in my case,but I don't know off hand what size the holes are for a stocker, but I guess they could be drilled out to accept some 1/4" tubing.
Let us know how it works out for you, I'm always up for "building a better mousetrap".

Stainless tubing should be available at most hydraulic hose or oilfield supply houses.
Hope you have a good quality tubing bender, it's pretty tough stuff, not like wimpy copper.

Interesting concept and tank with drain down valve.
Where are you intent on mounting it?

I was thinking on the down tube by the rear master cylinder, run some braided line to the air cleaner, its 7" long and 2 3/8 dia, it hasn't come yet, so that spot is where I was thinking for now

I still think I came up with one of the best/cleanest looking,invisible mods so far.If I do say so myself.

Copied and pasted my solution from one of the many threads about crankcase breather venting.

This is what I came up with after being unable to find any system that would work with a SE stage one backplate, I went with dual hoses parallel to bottom of rocker box covers then down to hidden catch can in cowbell. Marine shrink wrap over fittings tapped into backplate really cleaned it up.

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This is why. I didn't have a lot of oil drippng, But enough to make a mess on cam cover,pipes,side cover,and front of saddle bags if I didn't clean the filter every week or so. It looks like this because the moisture and oil are being shaken like a paint mixer in the cowbell. Glad this gunk isn't going in my intake.


http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps392d7fea.jpg

Re Smokey S's answer, I wonder if running 2 hoses between the heads reduces air circulation in that critical area. Also, horn placement?

[QUOTE=Smokey Stover;14166569]I still think I came up with one of the best/cleanest looking,invisible mods so far.If I do say so myself.



Hope you didn't hurt yourself with all that back-patting.......


You can go to this extent if you please but it's really not necessary. All of my bikes have been vented to atmosphere sans any end-of-hose filter or catch can and my EVO (1995) is the only bike I've ever found a drop of oil beneath that I could attribute to venting the crankcase outside of the air filter.

Stay with threaded fittings. Friction won't be enough to overcome the vibration.
You can find stainless tubing at any auto supply along with the fittings ad bending tools.