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Buellrobot
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2019 - 08:18 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

About a year ago I installed XB head covers with PCV valves, hoping it would make the breather vent less junk.

Unfortunately, if anything, it seems to have gotten worse (video): https://streamable.com/1g9u5

Before the XB covers, it seems like the breather had been progressively spitting out
more and more junk over the years.

Is this something that's common? Anything I should check?
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Natexlh1000
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2019 - 10:00 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Mine has always fogged my leg. I finally gave up and routed the tube to just in front of my exhaust outlet.
I never bothered with a catch can.

All that being said, your vid shows a much greater volume. Mine has always been more water than oil.

I would lean towards your setup being messed up somehow.
Either something simple like having too much oil in the system or something wrong with the PCVs on the rockers.


Worst case: excessive blowby caused by broken piston ring.
I had that happen on my old ironhead.

Check easy/cheap first.
Looks like we're local to each other.
Perhaps we could meet up sometime and compare how much volume comes out of our breathers? (When the weather+my twins permit!)
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2003xb9r
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 03:05 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I've experienced this with two of my tubers. One was pretty much as bad as yours. I don't want to be a prophet of doom but it may be time for a serious top end freshen up. Rebuilding one of my S1Ws eliminated 99.9 % of the puking, the catch can almost never has anything to drain now.
How many miles are on your X1? What sort of usage has it had?
I have delayed the inevitable for my S3 (with XB covers & PCV valves) by removing the catch can and running separate engine and gearbox vent tubes up under the frame right through to the rear fender. They exit just below the licence plate where they can puke into the wind if and when they like. Works so well I'm going to leave it like this until I HAVE to rebuild it. Maybe something you could try?
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Ft_bstrd
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 09:23 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

How often to you empty that catch can?

Your line routing could use a little work as well. There should be a 90° elbow coming into the can so that the lines enter vertically. You lines are acting as a P-Trap.

Something is preasurizing the lines.



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Upthemaiden
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 10:25 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I'm having a hard time seeing where your breather line even runs. Is that the blue hose that's peaking out in front of the front cylinder?

Those are nice fork stops. I just cut some squares out of some rubber hose. What are the pieces you're using?
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Ft_bstrd
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 10:35 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

OEM fork stops. For M2, should have cut them down a bit with the S1 WP forks.

Excuse the filth and the wiring rats nest. In the process of rewiring.

I have the XB rocket boxes and routed the hoses along the left side frame rail and drop it down along the ledt of the engine mount.

Keeps the flow open and assisted by gravity so that it doesn't create a fluid trap. I think pressure is building up.

Also, if you don't drain the catch can regularly, it will do that as well.








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Upthemaiden
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019 - 12:13 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Good to know, the ones that came on my bike were very thin and in bad shape. I assume they were the originals but who knows. The rubber hose works well but isn't quite as pretty. Some of those bumpers on the frame for the gas tank would do the same as well.

I have a set of the XB rocker boxes and PVC valves that I'll install eventually, but at this point I'm very fortunate to have a bike that doesn't seem to drain much of anything out of the breathers, so I know better than to mess with them until I need to.
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Buellrobot
Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 11:16 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Really appreciate all the thoughts and advice.

The video was after emptying the can and going for a chilly ~120 mile ride on an early-winter day (35f maybe). I believe I was getting a fair bit of condensation in the engine oil, despite trying to only run the bike for 30-60+ mins, minimum, in cold weather.

Bike is just over 27k miles and has always run kind of hot. Did a top-end rebuild after a hot summer ride from brooklyn to california (was supposed to be SF, but only made it to big sur before something went). That was at around 14k miles, in 2012-ish.

I have moved the drip can around a few times, so I hope it's just my line routing that is at issue, but I fear it may be the doom 2003xb9r was prophesying. I did check my compression at the end of last summer and it seemed to be good.

Will empty the can, reroute the lines, and see what happens.

Thanks again for all the help! (and the photos, Ft_bstrd)

(Message edited by buellrobot on February 16, 2019)
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Buellrobot
Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 11:15 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Natexlh1000, where are you based? I'm in Boston nowadays (can't remember what my profile says). Might be fun to go for a ride sometime. Very impressive that you've got 90k on your tuber.
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Natexlh1000
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2019 - 09:37 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I'm a Hollistonite now.
I think my profile says I'm still in the Blackstone valley.
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Buellrobot
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2019 - 12:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I figured out part of the issue. When I took the catch can off and unthreaded the inlet barb, I discovered the whole can was full of a thick gelatinous oil-foam that wasn't draining out of the small outlet at the bottom of the can.

The stuff wouldn't light on fire, so I'm hoping it means there's little/no fuel blowing past the piston rings.

Will post a short video of the foam when I have a sec. It's weird stuff!
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Buellrobot
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2019 - 12:24 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

https://streamable.com/y51hk
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Natexlh1000
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2019 - 08:01 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Yeah. That's the baby-snot that used to drip on my right shoe.

It's mostly water. Cold weather brings out the most volume.

If you look at the big long hose you have set up, you can see it as a sort of still.
Steamy vapors come out of the engine and get condensed out with the chilled hose.

I honestly don't have a solution for you.
This is why I gave up and routed the bare hose to right up front of my exhaust outlet.

I even used some neoprene clear hose so I can watch the globs coalesce and march out as I'm idling.

My bike has been producing that garbage for 90,000 some miles so far.
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Odd
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2019 - 07:58 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Just a thought,check each breather line by it self to see if the oil is coming from the front or rear head or both. If it's just one head you might have a bad valve guide seal in that head.
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Buellrobot
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - 01:07 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

@Odd – Excellent suggestion, thanks! I am out of town for a bit, but this is a great idea for next time I've got the tank off. For now I'm assuming that it'll not be spraying quite as much crap all over my leg/bike, at least until it fills w/ snot again : )
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Steveford
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - 03:41 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I put XB rocker covers on my first X1W and had snot o'plenty going into the catch can and that bike only had a few thousand miles on it when I did that.
I think it's the nature of the beast.
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Odd
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - 07:54 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

The bike I worked on only had a few thousand miles on also,however it had a burnt valve guide seal after replacement no more oil
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Buellmanmike
Posted on Saturday, May 11, 2019 - 09:52 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I am about to do the XB covers and breather on my X1. After reading this, I will be pulling my catch can to check it out, it's been on a long time. But I have to agree, when I lived in NJ my bike puked a lot. In Florida not really.
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