Ironhead Oil everywhere

[peter72harley]

Hi all,
Okay, have done some 500 kms after the initial build, not all without trouble. First one was that after the Bendix rebuild, the rubbers were a bit tight and that caused some fuel slippage when idling... well... that caused a fire.. and yes, I had a little stress....

1 month later:
Now I have a S&S super E shorty, and all is good (for about 300 kms)..

1 month later:
It seems the bike has a bit of an issue on the highway. All is good on the 'normal roads', but after about 20 minutes doing approx 110 km/hr I suddenly lost compression / couldn't keep power. Bit of strange noise coming from the top.. after 2 minutes on the side of the highway, could start her again normally and sounded normal, so continued and avoided highways ever since.
Bought a commuter bike for going to work, KLR650, does the job.


Took the Ironhead out today on the B roads. After about 20 km at a stop-sign, I smelled oil and all of a sudden saw smoke under me.. Deja-vu, this time no flames (yet), but sh#t, don't want this! Took a look... Oil everywhere... I believe it is coming from the fuel intake, via the carb! Does that sound weird to you guys?
She was still running (I got home), which I found strange. I am talking about a lot of oil, not just a drop once in a while, but large drops, almost forming a stream...

Anyways, has anyone got any thoughts on what could be wrong this time? After spending way too much money on getting her going (blew my budget by about .. double), my finance minister says "don't spend more, sell it. The re-build of the engine will again cost way too much".

Sad Pete..

[big andy]

Hi pete that sounds strange to me if the oil is coming from near the carb wtf. The oil to the top end is pumped up the two chrome tubes from cases to the rocker boxes cant see how it can get to near ya carb .Can you take a pic of where ya think it is coming from.Our you havent got oil lines running under the tank to your oil cooler up front have ya

[big andy]

Also pete the problem with it playing up on the freeway may be tight pushrods adjust them the way it tells you in the stickies in red in the iron head section much better way than in the workshop book shows you how to set them with a little more slack so you dont have tight pushrods when she gets hot.Also you may need an isolating block between carb and manifold.Your fuel may be getting to hot the blocks are made of baker lite or something like it to stop the heat going to the carb and boiling the gas

[barefoot]

Sounds like a scavenging problem ....

[timberjack]

could it be possible one of your line fittings has a crack in it? sounds like it is pouring out from that area.Or maybe the rubber fell apart in there i cant think of anything else that might be leaking so badly from that area.And the noise is likely loose push rods mine seem to get looser then tighter if the lock nut wasnt tight enough, makes a lot of top end clatter when that happens.Gd luck

[ryder rick]

Sounds to me like he burned up the top end. First sticking valves then damaged pistons.

[randy3934]

If it's a 77 oil coming from the carb would be a first for me, I'd clean it up and fire it up and find out for sure where the oil is coming from.

[FearlessFrisbee]

Check the top oil feed line nuts when they connect to the heads. The oil may be running under one of the fins and then down onto the manifold.

[antsap]

I'll admit I'm a bit metrically challenged, but 110 km per hour sounds fast to me for a brand new motor with only a few hundred miles on it. might want to do a leak down test

[nikki]

Originally Posted by antsap

I'll admit I'm a bit metrically challenged, but 110 km per hour sounds fast to me for a brand new motor with only a few hundred miles on it. might want to do a leak down test

+1 I agree that is 65to 75 miles per hr way to fast to run steady at on a motor that has less than 2000 K on it (1250 miles ) Nikki