Spitting oil

Started Lucy today. She hasn't been run in about 7 weeks. She up and decided to spit oil out her tail pipes. About an equal amount from each pipe. Not much, just enough to put a little splatter on the wall. Looks like a speckled star burst. Also, the fuel gremlin is back. She was full when parked and she was empty today. No sign of leak and no fuel smell in the air. I walk past her every day so I would notice a smell. She has also developed a coolant leak. Might be needing to rebuild some stuff. Ideas on where to start anybody?

My first thought would be valve seals might be leaking a bit and with it sitting for a while, allowed some oil to find its way into the cylinders or onto the exhaust valves. I think I would check that out first and of course the antifreeze leak could be the one up by the system drain valve that a lot of us experience.

Let us know what you find please.

Rick F.

Are you sure it's spitting oil? If a tank of gas disappeared it had to be running into the engine and maybe into the exhaust system and maybe evaporating. Check the oil very carefully to make sure it's not mixing with the oil.

All good advice so far IMHO too Ready.. Another thought,,, if your not smelling and/or seeing actual burnt oil in the air there is a very good chance it is not coming from/thru the combustion chamber.. I would consider the possibility that your bike was very cold (I know its sort of wintery here and we dont live that far apart ) and when the hot air from combustion passed thru those ice cold, frozen by the hands of FlyinFool himself, exhaust pipes they had a little condensation rapidly happen and the condensation washed the inside of the pipes and splatted on the wall - its amazing how much like oil that gook can look = something to consider, maybe!

So,, does Tweeks leak in the video look familiar?

I am with cowpuc have seen that many times when the pipes heat up after its gotten cold out. As for the gas I would guess a float that's a bit sticky and letting a little fuel by, Check the oil level. Make sure its not ending up in there.

If you are sure that the tank was full when you left it, and you say that now it's empty, and you have not smelled gas at anytime,,, then there is only one of two places it could go. It would not end up leaking into the carbs seeing as the tank is lower than the carbs, so it has to be going elsewhere. If it is parked in an enclosed garage then somebody has helped with the disappearance, if it's in a shed with the possibility of air flow through, you might have a leak.

The garage she is kept in is in the warehouse where I work. It never gets colder than 50 so freezing isn't ever an issue. The room she is in is 15'X20' and two of the other guys I work with keep their bikes in there too. I trust them not to be taking my fuel mostly because I run 87 and they both run 91. I have faced the fuel gremlin before and not figured it out. It has to be a gasket somewhere because as long as I run her at least every other day the fuel doesn't vanish.

Mr. Cowpuc- glad to hear from you again. I hope your recovery goes well and we see you out here this summer for some tamales and secret family recipe venison burgers. :fatsmiley:That looks exactly like my coolant leak. I have been meaning to upgrade my water pump. Looks like I will also be doing some seal replacement too.

I will get pictures of the splatter and maybe sample the fluid coming out to make sure it is oil and not something else. It sure looked like oil and not condensation. It had an oily feel to it so Im fairly sure it is oil. I will also check the oil to make sure no fuel is getting in there. Thank you all for your responses.

Another thought: If you have a coolant leak at the water pump, the oily feel could very well be the antifreeze mixing with the water...and a touch of head gasket leak from not running and you can blow some oily feeling coolant out the exhaust as well....and if it's dark in color, that could be nothing more than crap(carbon) in exhaust pipe that got blown out with the water/coolant stuff...

Leak would be at the water pump....water and oil are very close together there with not much keeping them apart.

Regardless, the fuel thing is what gets to me. It has to be evaporating. It would leave a stain on the floor at the very least if it was leaking. To me, with the tank down low...either the tank is leaking or one of the fuel lines or fuel pump has sprung a leak....I'd check the tank. I would think the hoses or pump would leak even when running...but then I would think the tank would leak all the time!

Because gas freezes at negative 250F, at 50F your fuel is near boiling at this temperature. This is the reason there is no remnants of the fuel leakage on the floor. My guess is the line on the fuel pump that goes up to the Carbs. that is held on with a spring clamp is leaking there. Install a hose clamp on the fuel line (or both sides to be sure) and see if the fuel issue goes away. Also while you are down there, (fuel pump area) have a close look at the fuel filter. I have seen those crack in the tube area where the fuel lines connect.

As far as the coolant leak issue goes, I have a kit for that. Here's the link:

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/photopost/showproduct.php?product=186&title=first-gen-1983-1993-radiator-drain-upgrade-kit&cat=17

The O'Ring in this kit is slightly oversized, and made from Nitrell to stop that pesky leak. It takes about 30 minutes to install, and the kit also comes with a S.S. cap screw and lock washer to replace the cheesy metric Phillips head screw which the bike came with. Lastly, if the specks on the wall that came from the exhausts didn't run down the wall like oil would if you splashed it on the wall, then it is carbon washed out of the exhausts by condensation. Nothing more. Replacement of a water pump will NOT address a coolant leak in the area shown in Puc's video.

Earl