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[mcdonaldroadcapt]

Does anyone have this same problem?  If I put in four quarts of oil as instructed by Harley, I always get blow by out of the air cleaner at highway speeds.  If I remove about 1/2 quart, the blow by ceases.  Just hate to run 1/2 qt low all of the time and wonder if I am losing some heating effect from the loss of the 1/2 qt.

Jim
Canton, Ga

[Twolanerider]

Adding to the full line (i.e., four quarts) on an oil change is overfilling.  That line is full hot.  Most (ok, at least many) do about 3.5 qts at an oil change.  That becomes full when hot (or close enough).  It also solves the blowby and lost oil problem.

[Tom149]

What Twolanerider said!

Tom

[grc]

Does anyone have this same problem?  If I put in four quarts of oil as instructed by Harley, I always get blow by out of the air cleaner at highway speeds.  If I remove about 1/2 quart, the blow by ceases.  Just hate to run 1/2 qt low all of the time and wonder if I am losing some heating effect from the loss of the 1/2 qt.

Jim
Canton, Ga

Jim, I think it would be safe to say that not only do some have that problem, but almost all have that problem.  It's been the subject of many oil consumption topics around here over the years, and running a pint low has solved a lot of consumption and air cleaner dripping problems.  Unfortunately, H-D hasn't seen fit to fix this problem or modify their fill instructions, not that I ever really expected they would.  They don't have problems, only customers have problems.

I personally do it like this:

My dipstick now has homemade marks for full cold and full hot.  Full cold is 1/3 of the way up between ADD and FULL, and full hot is 1/2 of the way down from FULL.  No oil mess from the air cleaner anymore, and overall consumption is less than a quart between changes.

When you do an oil change, make sure you let the bike idle for two minutes on the stand before shutting down and pulling the drain plug.  This allows the oil pump to move as much of the oil as possible back to the tank where it can be drained.  Once you have drained as much as possible, and after changing the filter and buttoning everything back up, add 3 quarts of oil and fire the engine.  Let it idle for a minute or so to distribute the new oil, then shut it down and check the oil level with the dipstick.  Add oil until the level is about 1/3 above the ADD mark.  After your next ride, verify the oil level (hot) at approximately halfway between the ADD and FULL marks.

As for the loss of 1 pint in capacity affecting cooling, I imagine it can make a small difference.  If that idea bothers you, you could always install a bigger oil pan from Baker.  On the other hand, there are tons of us out here running a pint low with no problem.


Jerry

[mcdonaldroadcapt]

Thanks so much for the detailed answer.  I will take the advice and follow suggestions...

Appreciated.

Jim

[Cvostu]

that Jerry's good