Comrades,
I'm a newbie to the site and found cvoharley while doing research regarding my problem. Well here's another one for the long list of 110 gasket / head / motor troubles. Mine is a '07 SEUC vin 950561 - 5.5k miles when story starts.
Rode up to Laconia for bike week from NC, noticed a couple of drops of oil coming out of rear cylinder by head. Nothing major but was dripping a bit each day on the ride up. Not being a wrench I figured it might be a head bolt that got a bit loose or something simple.
No measurable oil loss. So we all make it up to Weirs Beach and get settled in our cottages at the Naswa Resort. Next day's plan was to go up to Meredith HD first thing in the morning and get them to check it out and hopefully just re-torque a head bolt.
Well the service writer takes a look and tells me that the HD factory rep is there (bike week, so their hanging out) and they will want to pull the head and check it out closer. Well it is what it is so let's get 'er in there and get working on it. I ask about how long, he tell me 2 - 2.5 hours.. (Damn, going to miss the big run up to Mt. Washington that was leaving Meredith HD around 10AM or so.. Oh well got to take care of the Eagle and get her hurt wing fixed! No big deal we'll run the summit later or tomorrow. I tell my dozen pack members in our group to take off and that we'll catch up with them around noon.)
2 - 2.5 hours to pull head and check it out, right... 8.5 hours later I get the Eagle back.(My bride and I hanging around the dealer's shop area the whole time. Getting some updates along the way. But it took me stealthing my way into the shop to talk to the mechanic.) Here's the summary - Service Manager tells me it's thought that there is / was a factory milling problem with the seating area of the head / cylinder and that they put new gasket on. He goes on to tell me that when I get back home I should go to my HD dealer and they'll put a new cylinder and head on. I said you say what? New head and cylinder? Why didn't you guys put one on? We don't have one they tell me and it's ok to ride.
Needs a new cylinder and head but it's ok to ride for the rest of bike week and back to NC? They tell me yep.. it will be fine.. I ask them to give me something in writing about what they found and it's condition. They tell me don't worry about it, it's in the computer and my dealer can look it up by running my VIN. I then ask them to print me a copy of what it says in the computer.. They tell me they can't. But it's ok to ride. It took 5k miles to leak the first time so you'll be fine for bike week and to get back to NC. Ok these guys are the experts. Surely they wouldn't let me leave if there was any problem. Man, I'm a fool believing that BS.
I leave the HD dealer around 6:30 pm and we regroup with our pack. 60 or so miles of riding after leaving HD shop and no oil drops. I think ok we should be ok. Next day we all take off to Mt. Washington. Seems to run ok up to the mountain base so we head up to the summit. It starts running a bit hot, pinging and losing power about 3/4's of the way up. At one point I had the throttle wide open and she was barely moving. Seemed like I was losing compression.
I let her cool down, check the oil, no leaks and then we head down the mountain. First and second gear down the hill. Right as we get to the base, she shuts down. I coast over to the side and notice the oil is running out of the front by what I believe is the cam sensor. It was hot.. I mean burning hot... Rear cylinder was yellow. (Riding up and down the mountain it didn't seem any hotter than normal on this '07 thigh cooker.) So I let it cool down, put some oil in it and try to start it up. Soon as I do, oil gushing out of the front sensor like a main artery cut. It's around 4pm I call Meredith HD and I talk to the service manager and tells me to call their sister store in Conway and maybe they can get me a tow. I call there and they tell me it maybe about 7 - 7:30 pm before they can get a truck out. Damn... Anyway, I get a truck on my own and get towed back to Weirs Beach. Rest of bike week, bikeless. I'm surely not bringing it back to Meredith HD so I get it trailered back to NC and my dealer in Rocky Mount. The Rocky Mount HD team there said they could find nothing in the "computer" about my issue as the Meredith service group told me.
Here's the outcome: HD told my dealer that they would overnight a new motor to them for me and they were to pull the old motor and put it in the create and ship it back to them. I believe they were told do not open up the blown motor. They (HD) listed the new motor and labor as "customer comp." not a warranty issue... Hmmm...
I asked my dealer's service shop to find out why they (Meredith HD) would have let me leave with a motor that was defective and they (Meredith's service manager) said I should not have ridden it up the mountain. (They knew we were going to go up to Mt. Washington.) Maybe I should not have in hindsight. But they told me it was fine to ride. Maybe I just should have not spent $35 thousand dollars on this bike. Maybe I should have rode my Indian up to Laconia and up the mountain. I could go on and on. Lot of maybes.. So I have the Eagle back with a brand new thigh cooker 110 and in the process of breaking in my 2nd motor. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Any thoughts or comments on this problem or my stupidity on believing it was "ok to ride" with what they said was a incorrectly milled cylinder and head?
Author
Topic: Head Gasket (Read 32205 times)