Air Cooled Engine - Overheating - Oil spillin

Message

kennydude · #1 Unread post by **kennydude** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:07 pm

hey guys, first off i appoligise for not lurking these forums as often as i should. honestly, ive been out ridin and enjoyin the summer. hope you all are too.

gettin to the subject, i rode my bike for a ride to edmonton (from calgary) and it made it to Red Deer and i looked down at my feet and saw the right foot covered in oil.
id assume it was over heating as it is an air cooled engine, and i was goin around 120 or so (i think my speedomitor is busted i thought i was goin only 100 or 110 but my buddys said it was faster on their speedomitor)

anywaayy, the oil seems to be comin out of the "fins" on the front of the bike. i posted a picture here - (facebook, but i should have an open profile for anyone to look at w/o being my buddy online) of the bike but it wont show the oil as it is an old picture. but the circle is where its comin from

the bike is a Yamaha 400 Maxim. Usually it runs great. just with the warm weather i wonder if this could cause it.

if you need any more info ill gladly post it.
also thanks again for readin this !

-kenny vigar
kennydude@gmail.com

jonnythan · #2 Unread post by **jonnythan** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:26 pm

You circled the entire engine.

I seriously doubt if it's overheating if you were moving at high speed for such a long time.

Blown gasket or something I guess. If you could be more specific....

kennydude · #3 Unread post by **kennydude** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:27 pm

sure ya, im not sure really how to be more specific just cause i dont know bikes that well yet.
any particular thing youd want me to check? or any info your thinkin about ?

flw · #4 Unread post by **flw** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:37 pm

The sitre you typed asked for a pwd so I couldn't see your pick.

But I still have a quesiton on the overheating. What is your symptom that makes you believe its overheating?

Are you leaking enough that you can see the loss on the sightglass or just enough to see oil on the bike or drops on the ground? A close up pic with someone pointing to the oiled area you think it seems to show up first would be nice.

jonnythan · #5 Unread post by **jonnythan** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:41 pm

kennydude wrote:sure ya, im not sure really how to be more specific just cause i dont know bikes that well yet.
any particular thing youd want me to check? or any info your thinkin about ?

I dunno, I'm no mechanic.... but..

The part that you circled is the cylinder. It's one solid piece of metal with the head bolted onto the top of it. There's a gasket between the two to seal them together.

The bottom of the cylinder bolts to the crankcase. There's another gasket there to seal them together.

I'd be surprised if a blown head gasket led to that much oil leaking, because the head is where the gasoline gets combusted so there's little to no oil up there.

A blown cylinder gasket, on the other hand, probably would lead to a lot of leaking oil, because there's a lot of oil and oil pressure down there pushing it out.

That's my guess. Look for the seam where the cylinder (the finned part) joins the crankcase (the main body of the engine at the bottom of the cylinder).

Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:05 pm

Is it coming out of the front around a smaller finned cover? If so it may just be the oil filter cover that's leaking. Get a new gasket, get a new filter and do your oil change.

flynrider · #7 Unread post by **flynrider** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:15 pm

I have to go with the group here. Unlike a water cooled bike, an air cooled bike doesn't spew anything out when it overheats. Your highspeed dash down the highway makes this even less likely. It sounds very much like a gasket has let loose somewhere on the engine. You need to clean the oil off the bike as much as possible, then run the engine and see if you can spot the source. Given the amount of oil it seems to be leaking, this shouldn't be very difficult.

kennydude · #8 Unread post by **kennydude** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:57 pm

thats awesome how you guys are all replying so quick

regarding the over heating, well i wasnt sure. i was teachin someone to ride on it the day before and i had it idling alot in the sun, and in calgary its been pretty warm.
it was the next day i pulled it out to do the road trip and it rode great for the first 200km or so.. hah

ok heres a better site to upload the pic

now im confident that its spilling out where the arrow points.. not so much where the circle is.

i will double check tonight and let you guys know, also ill take a picture of the actual leak and ill get right up close

thanks again guys

-kenny

Sev · #9 Unread post by **Sev** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:24 pm

Are you still in Edmonton? I can take a look at it.

kennydude · Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:34 pm

nah i rented a van for 200 buck and drove it back home

hah. im a sucker. i appreciate the offer though man !