Oil out Exhaust Ports

[dragxs11]

Anybody ever heard of this?
I've got a project bike pouring oil out the ports of 1&4. Engine is hitting on all four and doesn't seem to be burning it(till the pipes get hot enough). Haven't torn into it yet, but it's gotta be more than valve seals. It ran fine a few years ago, sat for a year or two, then when we got it ready to run, this happened. If I didn't know better, I'd say the heads gotta be cracked or something. Obviously, it hasn't overheated.
matt

[trbig]

If the bike WAS running fine, then it is probably a problem from sitting. You may indeed have some seal problems also, but that usually gets fairly atomized coming on from the valves and gets burned.

My guess is that you have some sticky oil rings in the piston that aren't wiping the cylinders well. I'd use some Seafoam/ Marvel Mystery Oil/ Trans fluid/Diesel/ whatever... and run it in your oil at idle to help clean things up... then change the oil. My preference is the Sea Foam.

The bad news is... with it being # 1 & 4 together... if sitting a while with a valve open and exposed to humidity (1 & 4 move together.. same as 2 & 3) the cylinders may have rusted. On the first startup.. forcing the oil rings up past that rust could have damgaged/broken them. They are pretty fragile.

I hope it just needs cleaning though.

Tod

[dragxs11]

I agree, Tod. When I have a chance, I'll run a compression test on it. The only reason I'm second guessing a combustion chamber issue is that I'm not getting a lot of smoke. But, since I've never torn into an engine yet, I'm kinda looking forward to it. If I have broken rings, I'll bet, by now the cyls are pretty trashed. The bike was never out of the garage, but that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't enough humidity to do some damage.

[cdpruden]

Funny enough, (or terrifying) yesterday morning when I fired mine up, I got a bit of oil actually spewed out at the #1 exhaust -- outside of the header pipe, though. It smoked for a few, but seemed to run fine, and didn't produce any smoke from the exhaust or anything.

I was pretty worried it had overheated; I was stuck in traffic for an hour or so Monday night.

It seems to be running reasonable, just as much power as usual, etc. I'm not sure, but it might feel a bit rougher than it did -- but I might just be imagining that.

Is that the sort of thing that could just indicate that by chance the #1 exhaust valve happened to be open?

I'm not all that worried about it at the moment, but it's a bit odd.

[trbig]

Hey Drags...

How many miles are on the motor?

Tod

[xsivegary]

Look in the air cleaner to see if there is oil coming in through the crank case breather. If the rings are stuck in their grooves on the pistons, compression will leak past the rings and pressurize the crank case and push oil through the breather. No oil in the aircleaner...then it's probably running down the valves. These bikes hold a considerable amount of oil up around the cams, and if the bike has been sitting oil can seep past the valves over time and sit on top of a closed valve, letting it all into the combustion chamber on start up making the situation look worse than it may actually be. A little oil, looks like a whole bunch all at once after a bike has been sitting.

[Ken Talbot]

What do you mean by oil "coming out of exhaust ports"? Is it coming out of the end of the exhaust pipes, and if so, how can you tell it is originating from #1 and #4? Or, are you saying that you've got oil dripping off of the motor somewhere in the close vicinity of the #1 and #4 headers. There is a big difference...