Lots of oil coming out of my breather

[Guest]

I got home last night and noticed that I have way too much oil coming out of my breather hose that comes out of the valve cover, I have pod filters so the breather hose goes to a breather filter and the filter is dripping oil like crazy. Can anyone let me know what the problem could be?

[tkent02]

Did your oil level suddenly get itself way above the top of the sight glass?

Guess why?

[yank]

Did your oil level suddenly get itself way above the top of the sight glass?

Guess why?

Hummmmm,let me take a stab at this,I would start with the petcock, only one,needle valve not seating? You might be getting gas in your oil. How did we do?

[tom203]

We have a winner!

[Oliverstrother]

Can you explain this to me? How would the oil fuel get into the oil?

[tkent02]

Bad petcock, fuel leaks into the carburetors, since the EPA made the overflow tubes go away the carbs now overflow into the crankcase. Soon an entire tank of gas will be in the crankcase except it won't all fit. So it comes out the breather into the airbox and out onto the floor. Exactly where it would have gone before the EPA meddled with the overflow tubes. The difference is with overflow tubes you swould have noticed it sooner, and would not have ruined your engine and your air filter along the way.

[whalford1]

I had the same problem with my 82 GS1100GL when I first bought it. Then I siphoned about 1 1/2 quart of oil out of it to get the oil level down to about half way down the site glass.

The previous owner had overfilled it.

But it still would puke oil when hot, especially after riding a while. Then I noticed that the oil seemed to be coming from the front side of the engine.

So I removed the crank case vent filter (I also have pod filters) and fashioned up a catch bottle (hose in the cap at top coming from the engine vent, hose coming out of the cap at top exiting out by the rear tire) to see how much was actually being puked out versus leaking out.

Over the next several weeks, I noticed very, very little oil in the bottle. In fact, there was more moisture accumulating than oil, with only a very slight oil film on the water that was accumulating.

But I was still getting oil coming around the right side of the engine after riding it a while. And I mean large amounts puking out on my right leg/ankle/foot.

Eventually I found 2 more problems that was causing it: (1) The transmission was way overfilled, and (2) The transmission vent hose was routed wrong. It was pointing into the air space just to the right of the cam chain galley. Air flow was causing the transmission oil that was being puked out to go through the air space and around the front of the engine to the right.

I corrected the transmission oil level, and routed the vent where it should be. Now it doesn't puke any oil.

By the way, the engine vent now has no filter. The one that was there was partially plugged. I ran a hose from the vent to the frame at the rear of the tank, plastic wire tied it there, then ran it down to the left side of the rear wheel and plastic wire tied the end to the left rear foot peg bracket where it's hidden and exits away from the tire. A plugged vent filter can cause problems with leaks. Which is probably what caused the leak in my clutch cover gasket.

[JTGS850GL]

Could also be too much blow by creating excessive pressure in the crank case.

[whalford1]

Could also be too much blow by creating excessive pressure in the crank case.

That could very well be the case. When I was having problems with mine puking oil, that's what most everyone was saying. However, blow by didn't quite explain my symptoms. Especially with only 25,000 miles. And I'm grateful that it wasn't blow by.

[850 Combat]

That screen stuff in the valve cover seems to come apart after only a few short decades. It has disappeared in some of mine, anyway. That is supposed to collect the mist and let it drip back down.

[tkent02]

I think this disappearance if caused by POs that don't know what it's for..

[GSX1000E]

Could also be too much blow by creating excessive pressure in the crank case.

There are members of this very forum that have gone to the trouble of finding a place to install a catch can instead of simply fixing the problem.
Several threads about it even.

[whalford1]

QUOTE=GSX1000E;2039793]There are members of this very forum that have gone to the trouble of finding a place to install a catch can instead of simply fixing the problem.
Several threads about it even. [/QUOTE]

I'm one of them. Except I installed the catch can as a means of troubleshooting to figure out how much was leaking out versus how much blow by there was. Had I not done that, I would have wasted more time worrying about a blow by problem that I didn't have.

I know that not every fix is as easy as mine. But not every oil puking problem is caused by blow by...as I found out. But it sure did seem that at least 90% of the so called experts said it was blow by.

A catch can isn't always a bad thing. It sure helped me.