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[Jswerve]

All that black soot you mentioned isn't necessarily from burning oil; it is more likely from an excessively rich mixture.  Oil will leave an oily feeling residue, whereas a rich mixture will produce more of a dry soot.

Before you get all worried over possibly nothing, I'd suggest a fresh load of oil and then careful monitoring of consumption over the next several thousand miles.  DO NOT overfill, as the engine will immediately blow the excess out through the breather system.  Also do not constantly add every time the oil level drops slightly.  Just monitor and log the level, but don't add until the level reaches the ADD line on the dipstick.  There is a simple reason for that btw.  Many Harley engines like to run a bit below full, and will quickly blow the excess out the breather system and then stabilize at roughly a pint low.  If your bike happens to be one of those, it will become obvious if the oil level drops to midway between FULL and ADD, and then stays there.  You won't know that if you constantly top it off.

Jerry

Great advice Jerry. I know my bike likes to run at 3.5 quarts. When I had cams done they filled it with 4 and the extra half quart caused excessive blow by.

Jesse

[North Georgia Hawg]

All that black soot you mentioned isn't necessarily from burning oil; it is more likely from an excessively rich mixture.  Oil will leave an oily feeling residue, whereas a rich mixture will produce more of a dry soot.

Before you get all worried over possibly nothing, I'd suggest a fresh load of oil and then careful monitoring of consumption over the next several thousand miles.  DO NOT overfill, as the engine will immediately blow the excess out through the breather system.  Also do not constantly add every time the oil level drops slightly.  Just monitor and log the level, but don't add until the level reaches the ADD line on the dipstick.  There is a simple reason for that btw.  Many Harley engines like to run a bit below full, and will quickly blow the excess out the breather system and then stabilize at roughly a pint low.  If your bike happens to be one of those, it will become obvious if the oil level drops to midway between FULL and ADD, and then stays there.  You won't know that if you constantly top it off.

Jerry

You'll know if there's too much oil in the tank... your right pants leg will turn all black and shiny, along with the right side of your bike!

Follow Jerry's oil level monitoring advice, and fill the oil tank to only about 1/3 of the way down from the Full Cold mark. If you fill it to the Full level when cold, you will likely get oil puking from the breathers.

Regarding oil puking from the breathers... what I have done on older bikes is to remove the rocker supports and drill out the oil drain holes in the breather cavity in the rocker supports to 1/8". This helps the oil in the breathers to drain better, which reduces the chances of oil puking into the air cleaner. This probably isn't necessary on newer bikes, but it can't hurt, either.

Your plug looks to be running a little too rich. As Jerry said, oil in the cylinders will makes the plugs look wet, not sooty like that plug.

However, since that plug was one of the pair used while Dyno tuning, I wouldn't rely on its condition. The AFR is set rich during Dyno tuning, to avoid the engine running too hot and/or avoid pinging. When doing TTS V-Tune runs, the lambda value is set to .981 to force closed-loop operation in the target cells. This produces the characteristic gassy smell and creates soot during V-Tuning. This disappears after the main lambda table is restored to normal values in the final calibration.

What do your current plugs look like? A good tune will not produce a plug dry and black like that. Plugs should be a light tan color, with no soot. White indicates a too-lean condition. Assuming your tuner is competent, your plugs should look good now.

Ken

[r0de_runr]

You bought a used bike with 3000 miles on it, I'd be wondering how it was broke in.  May have been abused for the whole 3k miles.

But you really wanted a 113 anyway , lol.

[CVOStreetglide]

The bike only has 6100 miles, its a  2013 SG CVO that I bought used with 3000 miles on it.  I do not see any leaks. My garage floor is spotless.  I do not know if running the engine hard during the Dyno might have use some of it but I thought  the amount that I have had to add seemed excessive.   When I got the bike back from the Dyno I noticed the inside of the pipe was full of black soot,  so much so that where the tips on the Reinharts attach there was even some soot on either side of that seam.

I am assuming you mean you have a 2012 CVO SG.  THERE WEREN't any CVO SG's in 2013 and 2014.

[North Georgia Hawg]

I am assuming you mean you have a 2012 CVO SG.  THERE WEREN't any CVO SG's in 2013 and 2014.

Good catch!

Ken

[Royalroadie]

I plan on putting 150+ miles on it in the morning.  Then I will look at the plugs.  As for the soot you are correct it was dry and not oily in anyway.  I only noticed it after the tune and I think that Jerry is probably correct.  Yes, it is an orange 2012 SG. Fat fingers!  Thanks guys for the input.

[Royalroadie]

I had a guy that Doc recommend do the tune so  I am not worried about that part.  When I first got the SG I know it was too lean, no doubt about it.  On a hot day it would ping, until I used 93+ oct.  Then only on a very hot day, under a heavy load, it might happen.  It runs well now, but I was concerned that I had used a little over a quart in 2000 miles.  I might have one of those bike that just does not like that last half quart.  I always measure and fill when it is over 200* on the jiffy stand on level ground.  Then I would let it idle for a while to get the oil hot and wait 2-4 minutes after shutting down to look at the dipstick.

[North Georgia Hawg]

[quote author=North Georgia Hawg link=topic=98021.msg1272140#msg1272140 date=
Assuming your tuner is competent, your plugs should look good now.

Ken


I had a guy that Doc recommend do the tune so  I am not worried about that part.  When I first got the SG I know it was too lean, no doubt about it.  On a hot day it would ping, until I used 93+ oct.  Then only on a very hot day, under a heavy load, it might happen.  It runs well now, but I was concerned that I had used a little over a quart in 2000 miles.  I might have one of those bike that just does not like that last half quart.  I always measure and fill when it is over 200* on the jiffy stand on level ground.  Then I would let it idle for a while to get the oil hot and wait 2-4 minutes after shutting down to look at the dipstick.

It takes a lot more time than you would want to idle your bike for to get the oil uniformly "hot" and expanded from full cold... about 15 minutes of normal riding, and longer in cold temps. There's a lot of oil in there, and it takes longer than you would think to get it all up to normal hot operating temp.

Ken