Oil Leak !

[Firefly]

Been running Royal Purple for 1,500 miles now and have noticed a strange smell from day one of starting it up. Smells worse at full throttle - a smell I've never smelled before. RP tech said it is their 'Synerlec' additive and the smell should go away after it 'seats' into the system.

Well - after 1,500 miles I'm seeing oil drips on my floor after a ride. Oil was low on the dipstick so I brought it back up to 1/4 showing. Looked around - removed the lower right splash pan which had oil on it. Oil seems to be coming from the front of the engine somewhere - hard to really see up in there.

Anyone else had any oil drippings?

I'm going to take a closer look, but may need to take it to the dealer - and I'll most likely do an oil change before just to get all that RP out of the bike in case that has caused a problem somehow.

Any ideas?

 

[NancysToy]

Doubt the RP caused the problem. The smell was probably from the additive they use being cooked off on the hot engine after it leaked out. From the sounds of things, it wouldn't smell the same as a normal oil would in those circumstances. Hope your leak is found and easily cured.
-Scotty

 

[tjfischer]

from the front of the Engine, not the air box? If its the front of the engine, then I would look at the valve cover gaskets first. Have you recently had your bike serviced? On one of my service where they checked the valves, they didn't put the valve cover on correctly. Hence I too had an oil leak fom the front valve cover.

I hope its that simple.

Tony

 

[Firefly]

I don't have an airbox since I run the race-airflow setup. 100% of my crankcase blow-by goes right into the throttle bodies.

I did have the valves checked at the 6,000 mile service - but didn't notice this oil drip until around 9,500 miles.

I thought that the RP smell also could be from it burning off the hot engine, but I smell this smell right after startup-when the engine is still cold. Strange. I checked around the oil plugs, oil hoses and filter and there is no oil coming from there.

I'm also leaning towards the front cylinder gasket as the problem.

Shouldn't they be able to do a pressure test to see if there is a leak?

 

[ataDude]

...Shouldn't they be able to do a pressure test to see if there is a leak?

Not if it's just the valve cover... which does make sense. You've been talking about the smell for a while... I assume right after the last service? If it's just the valve covers seeping a little... and collecting in the bottom plastic... you may not have noticed it (as far as leaking) for a while.


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[Firefly]

Not if it's just the valve cover... which does make sense. You've been talking about the smell for a while... I assume right after the last service? If it's just the valve covers seeping a little... and collecting in the bottom plastic... you may not have noticed it (as far as leaking) for a while.


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Last service was 4,000 miles ago ---- this just showed up last week. The smell showed up right after I put Royal Purple in it. I don't think it was leaking until last week or so - I would have noticed any oil on the ground. I have indoor parking privileges at work - on a nice clean painted floor - so it would be real easy to see any drips.

I'll tear it down further tonight and see what I see.