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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Intake valve and camshaft chambers full of oil?
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Message started by och on 08/10/23 at 12:58:16

Title: Intake valve and camshaft chambers full of oil?
Post by och on 08/10/23 at 12:58:16

Just took apart my bike to adjust valves. Not knowing any better I thought it would make the job easier if I removed the valve cover, so I did, only to find out the it has to stay on to be able to do the adjustment.

This being said, when I opened the cover, the chambers where the intake valves and the camshafts live were full of oil, the oil looked black and old... my bike just had an oil change, so the oil is fresh and clean. Some of this oil was sipping into the adjacent cavity where the spark plug lives.

Strangely enough, the exhaust valve cavities were bone dry.

Also, the infamous cap was full of oil on top, but it did not seem to be leaking. I removed it anyway and applied a liberal amount of gasket maker to it just in case.

I cleaned everything up, applied some red rtv, and waiting for it to cure so I can torque the valve cover and get to work on the valves.

Is it normal to see so much oil in there? I imagine there needs to be some oil there to lubricate the rotating assemblies, is there an oil gallery that pumps the oil there?

Also, the camshaft in these bikes is just terrible, the lobes are not even polished all the way across, what a sloppy design.

Title: Re: Intake valve and camshaft chambers full of oil
Post by DragBikeMike on 08/11/23 at 12:39:59

The reservoir that the camshaft rides in should be full of oil. Normal.

The intake valve spring pocket should also be full of oil. That pocket fills with oil and then the oil spills over the right-hand side of the pocket.
The spill-over lubricates the right-hand main bearing. Normal.

The exhaust valve pocket has a dedicated drain hole in the left side of the pocket. Oil drains down that hole to lubricate the left-hand main bearing.
That pocket should have a coating of oil but should not be full of oil. Normal.

Does your camshaft have any pitting? A picture would be helpful.

It's a shame you took the head cover off. See anything in there that could explain all the noise you reported. BTW, mine is very quiet to the naked ear, but when I record it on video it sounds like a bunch of nails rattling around in a can. I hope you aren't tearing the thing apart based on the audio portion of your vid. Phones and iPads give you a false indication of unusually loud noise.

Title: Re: Intake valve and camshaft chambers full of oil
Post by och on 08/11/23 at 13:42:10

I see, sounds normal then. I think I might have found the source of the noise though, I took off the exhaust to take apart my clutch and there was a piece of loose metal inside the exhaust, i think its from the time when I welded on the harley muffler.