Hey guys,

Have an issue and would like to ask to see what you guys think it may be.

Some times when I start the bike up when its been sitting for a couple of days or so, for some reason I can smell what seems to be like burned oil, is not like the smell of gasoline, this actually smells like burned oil, you know the kind of smell you get when oil falls on a hot exhaust pipe, that kind of smell is what it smells like to me.

There are no oil leaks on the floor underneath the bike or any oil leaks or stains around the engine, at least that I can see and I don't have any loss of power throughout the power ban at any given speed and the smell of burned oil it doesn't happen all the time, just every once in a while when I start the bike when its cold and not been ran for a few days.

My bike is a 2017 street glide special and the only thing I installed was Rinehart slip-ons, K&N filter and a Cobra Black 2000FI fuel management unit and again, the bike seems to run fine while on the road.

Do you guys have any clue what it could be?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments.

 

Glock45, here's what just happened to my 2017 SGS. I noticed it used a quart of oil in 2800 miles since my 1000 mile service with no signs of a leak etc... I have read that these M8s use some oil but to me that felt excessive. I went in to the dealer to pick up another quart of oil and decided to ask the Service Manager if they've seen anything like this. The had me bring it in to test for sumping but found that not to be the case. Next they performed a leak down test with it failed 17% in front cyl and 16% in the back cyl. Replaced rings, valves, valve seats and other things in the top end and got it out of the shop yesterday. I will continue to monitor hoping that its fixed. I'd request a leak down test if I were you.

 

Thanks for your reply Erummy.

I forgot to add on my post, that the oil level after checking on several different occasions, it seems to be consistent, which is at three dots below the full level, but then again, that doesn't mean that perhaps a small amount of oil may be leaking past the rings or something else.

My warranty will be over in 20-days, so I guess I better hury up and have the dealer look at it and hope the Moco doesn't **** about it to avoid a warranty repair, specially when it would expire in a few days.

 

I'd bet some small dribble of filter oil comes out of the K&N air cleaner while the bike is sitting for a couple of days, gets on the engine and burns away once the engine starts up and gets hot.

Every once in awhile while checking my engine oil, with a hot engine, I will drip a single drop of oil onto the exhaust housing where the catalytic converter is located. Man, that one drop will make a big cloud of smoke and smell like burnt oil for quite a little while. It doesn't take much. If you aren't seeing smoke, then you may be looking at much less than even a single drop of oil. Like, maybe a thin film of migrating oil and it seeps out of the air cleaner box. Personally I wouldn't worry about this unless I was seeing the cloud of smoke.

 

Edited my response, I thought you said your bike was smoking, I see now, you just mentioned the smell of smoke....

 

Some points here:

First - there is a bulletin, which I've seen with my very own eyes, that says 1QT every 1500 miles is acceptible. Remarkable but true.

Second, the service manual calls for further trouble shooting only when the leakdown test is above 25%

 

Next time you start it up, face the pipes towards a light source and stand on front of your bike facing the rear and you will see if it's smoking or not. My bike did this a few days ago on a very cool morning and I did smell the burnt oil smell as well. The pipe was facing the morning sun and I did see smoke, but if I had my back towards the sun looking in the opposite direction at the pipe, I couldn't see the smoke just smelled it. Taking it in this weekend to have it inspected just in case.

 

M8 valve leak down

 

Typical MoCo... don't fix an issue, just change the spec to make it acceptable....

1 QT every 1500 miles is nonsense....... My shovel heads never used that much oil...

25% leak-down?!? I did a leak-down on my '01 bike about a year ago, per my '01 service manual, " Leakage greater than 10% indicates an internal engine problem."

It's sad but the MoCo is clearly more focused on saving costs (reducing warranty liability), rather than increasing product quality and/or quality control....

While they've done similar for other engine platforms (like twin cam run out), just for the M8 they have:

Allowed for 6 oz of oil retained in the sump, to be acceptable.

Allowed trans to primary oil transfer to be acceptable and now have an ounce per mileage allowable limit (I forget where it's at now)

Allow for 25% leak down

Allow for 1 qt oil usage per 1500 miles.

The way these M8s can run when they have no problems, the MoCo is just shooting themselves in the foot by not addressing the M8 issues properly....

 

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the 1500 miles/quart of engine oil consumption. And BTW throughout the automotive industry there has been in my lifetime a minimum acceptable consumption standard of 1000 miles per quart of oil. So the Harley standard is actually a bit more stringent than what is normal in the industry.

The way I've always been told, the 1000/qt (or 1500/qt) is on an engine that has wear and tear on it. It isn't a brand new engine. As an engine wears out from use, it is normal for oil consumption to increase. The minimum standard is to determine whether an otherwise good running engine needs to be opened up and rebuilt due to wear and tear.

Personally if I bought a new vehicle, car or motorcycle, that used a quart of oil every 1500 miles I'd sure be in the service shop demanding some attention. But if it was an older machine, with lots of miles on it, then the 1500 miles standard would come into play.