Hello,
I'm new to the forum here and of course I own a Harley so I have an issue I have lost sleep over. Heres the deal. I bought a 93 electra glide ultra classic a few months ago with 75k on the clock. I bought it without a whole lot of past information on it which I figured no big deal because this wasn't my first bike purchase ever just my 1st harley. Well, after doing some odds and ends to the bike and investing some money to make it look a little nicer I noticed I was hearing a lot of tapping out of the top end. Like it was valve chatter or push rod chatter. So, I figured its a Harley if I wanted a quiet bike I would've stayed with what I had. I just thought id change the oil and add the lucas oil stabilizer with the mobil 1 20w50 synthetic oil. Good thing because as I changed the oil it was pretty black. Alright so oil is done I ride it about 50mi and the motor chatter did actually quiet down a tad. Yesterday I ride the bike and I notice the psi gauge is running at 35 when 1st started then as it warmed up it went back down to 20psi at idle. I rode it for about 30mi and parked it and looked over the bike and got underneath and saw a lot of the oil leaking out of the bottom somewhere and tops of the jugs have oil leaks now around the tops of the push rods. there were slight oil leaks before but now the bike looks like a geyser with oil everywhere. So I thought about it and wondered if the bike hasn't had synthetic oil in it did it maybe swell all the seals? Or is there something I didn't do to create too much pressure to blow out any seals? Anybody else have this problem? Am I going to have to reseal the whole motor? Out of all the bikes I've ever had I've never had this problem and don't know where to start. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

Get rid of the synthetic ... Clean it up and keep an eye on it. Also always give it time on start up to get a bit of heat.

 

Thanks Larry. So I'm guessing my theory is right? Did the synthetics swell the gaskets? And if I do get the synthetics out will they shrink back up?

 

Larry has the answer. I tried synthetic in my evo ONCE, and for a very short time - oil everywhere.

 

I used the klotz fluids in the transmission and primary. Should those be changed too?

 

I have 116,000 miles on my current motor with conventional H-D oil. Runs like a champ. I won't change what I know works.


I use H-D Formula+ in the primary and Valvoline 85W-140 gear oil in the transmission.

 

So I'm guessing even if I switch back to dino oil I will probably have to change all the leaky gaskets now?

 

Maybe, maybe not. Try it first. You might get lucky.

 

Thank you for the advice. I will give it a shot.

 

You shouldn't need to change any gaskets IMHO, going back to dyno oil. Synthetic oils work fine in more modern engines, but our Evos predate the time when they became common. I don't use synth in my Firebolt or Sporty, simply because they are not necessary or worth the additional expense.