Oil with water in it? : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

smoothinwiscons · 06-08-2009, 06:15 PM

I'll try and make this short and sweet. Appreciate some ideas on this guys.
I have a 2001 FLHT, carburated, with SE cams 258 and Turk Performance heads and a Thunderheader. Bike runs strong and I run her hard, has 33000 miles on it with 10,000 of those with the current configuration. About 3000 miles ago, right after having the 30K service done she started blowing oil out the breathers. I took a look and saw that they over serviced the oil. I drain the oil and put 3 1/4 quarts in her and ride it. Still blowing oil after she warms up or 10 miles or so.

I take the "Big Sucker" air cleaner off and the "Joker" breathers and put a SE air cleaner on her and she seems to stop blowing oil. (Or at least I can't see it now)

Saturday, I go for a 150 mile ride in the rain with some of the local guys and we are thrashing them pretty hard, I stop for gas and voila, she is spitting "milky" oil all down the side of the bike from the air cleaner.
My question is why is it milky? This motor blew a head gasket about 10k miles ago and when the repair on it was done is when I had the heads put on her. Is it possible she blew a head gasket and that the "Milky" oil is from water entering the engine??
Ideas? Feedback? HELP!!
Please.

NHFree1 · 06-08-2009, 08:59 PM

Unless you're running a liquid cooled engine, I don't think you're going to suck enough water into the engine from rain through a leaking head. If you're sucking excess moisture through the air cleaner, it will be sent out the tail pipe as water vapor. I can't see how you could possibly suck enough water into the engine through the air cleaner or otherwise to create milky oil caused by water. Sounds silly, but are you sure you had your oil filler cap on tight?

Faast Ed · 06-08-2009, 09:02 PM

Quote:

My question is why is it milky?

Have a number of short rides recently?
Might be condensation.

smoothinwiscons · 06-08-2009, 09:42 PM

Yeah cap was on tight, at least i think it was......short rides? A short ride where I am is 30 miles to work, seriousely, I don't ride anywhere under 30 or so miles.

hdmarsh77 · 06-08-2009, 10:01 PM

I think the hot, thin oily mess coming out of the air cleaner just mixed with the rain and water on the bike to make it milky. It's doesn't take much oil to do that but it sounds like you still have an issue with oil coming out of your air cleaner.

How did the oil in the oil tank look?

smoothinwiscons · 06-09-2009, 05:38 AM

Your probably right I hope. The oil in the tank was normal looking. Next question is why the heck would it start blowing oil after never doing it before?

**DBChoppers** · 06-09-2009, 11:45 AM

Your rocker box check valves (flappers) are probably not working, Doherty makes a nice set up.

jerry34208 · 06-09-2009, 12:26 PM

Posts #7 & #8 are on the money. You need to do some 'sploratory surgery.

smoothinwiscons · 06-09-2009, 09:22 PM

Yeah.....7 and 8 are not what I wanted to hear.....I wanted the easy fix!
So tear it down ya think? New pump?

Or would you guys do the Doherty Mystfree set up??

smoothinwiscons · 06-09-2009, 09:36 PM

Holy shiite, a search here did not reveal much good about the Doherty Myst Free!

Faast Ed · 06-09-2009, 09:49 PM

About $10 each will get you brand new replacement OEM breathers, incase yours aren't working right. The Doherty's are way high priced and from what I hear, not much better.
The Doherty's are pretty, very nice machine work, but unless you have clear rocker covers,.....

jerry34208 · 06-10-2009, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vafatboy

Me, I would take a look at the oil pump first and look for scoring. If present, I would check runout.

Yuppers, start with the most likely.

smoothinwiscons · 06-10-2009, 07:42 PM

Is this a common issue? Christ.....I thought these TC's were supposed to be bullet proof.
My shovel holds up better than this thing!

jim t · 06-10-2009, 08:29 PM

I agree that the oil was mixing with the water outside of the engine. I have the basic Doherty breathers, just the banjo bolts and a pipe between them. I was blowing some oil so I drilled out the banjos a size or two larger. I found that the drilling reduced in size before it got to the hole for the pipe. It only had one small hole for the air to get into the pipe from the banjo so I went up an other drill size and cross drilled the bolt so there were two exit holes into the pipe. It worked and I now have no blowby problem.

Pikeslayer · 06-11-2009, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vafatboy

Me, I would take a look at the oil pump first and look for scoring. If present, I would check runout.

I disagree. Only because it is so easy to replace the flappers. Take tank off. Take 6 bolts out of each rocker cover, take 2 bolts out of each breather valve assembly, and wala, your staring at the flappers.

Try this first.