Lean??

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Lean??
 
Do you have a magnifying glass?
Look for tiny speckles of aluminum.

The red / brown color is most likely caused by MMT.

Although they have some black soot which is carbon fouled. This is caused by low speeds, a lot of idle time, dirty air filter or slightly to rich fuel.
 
Left plug (side stand side)
Lean??



Right plug.
Lean??
Hello guys.
I have a couple things I’d like to ask your help on regarding my 2017 Dominator Naked.

1) I constantly have a puddle of oil in the valley area below my starter. My oil bottle is 1/4 of the way full and I have 507 miles on my Dominator Naked. I think 1/4 at 500 miles seems about right?
I have not yet emptied my oil bottle yet.
Im going to remove the tank and check head bolt torque soon.

When I park my bike for days in my garage on the side stand, the oil in the valley area pools up on the left side (side stand side). I clean up the oil with rags and dry the area before each ride.

The next time I go for a ride (days or weeks later) I have oil in the same area again, and again I clean it up.
I keep checking my engine oil level and it’s always good.

The amount of oil I get in this area is about 1 to 1-1/2 table spoons.

I also get oil in my air box. I haven’t removed the air filter yet, but before each ride, I clean the oil in the valley area below the starter and alway notice oil film on the out side air box drain hose and I get oil drops hanging from the two left side (side stand side) air filter screws.

2) Today I went for a short ride (10 miles) and the engine was running good while I was on the throttle (3-4000 rpm) but as I let off the throttle it was popping and stumbling a bit. First time it’s ever done this.
I returned home and removed both spark plugs.
The left spark plug (side stand side) is darker than the right side.
Plug have less than 500 miles on them.

Last time I rode the bike (last weekend) it ran great. No popping or stumbling off throttle.

But I always have the oil issue in the valley area.
I don’t have any smoke out of the left side exhaust pipe. But it’s obviously doing something looking from the spark plug.
The spark plug isn’t oil fouled.

I run the Bosch coils, NGK Iridium CR9EIX plugs, and Richards plug wires.

I always run Sunoco 260GT 100 octane race gas only because I use it in my track car, but I recently put BP 93 octane in because my gas light came on during my last ride. It’s most likely coincidental this stumbling and popping started and not fuel related, but I’ll be going back to the race gas again.
 
The oil beneath the starter may be a sign that your starter seal is bad, or has become dislodged from it's proper position.
Do you have one of Richard Coote's transmission vent line installed?
This can help reduce pressure in the tranny and prevent the starter seal from becoming dislodged.
You said that you check the engine oil and it's always good.
If the problem is the starter seal, then the oil is coming from the primary/tranny, not the engine, so your engine oil level will not change.

I had a bit of oil collecting in the same area. I found that the oil strainer on the oil feed line was leaking and the strainer body was in contact with the right side of the starter housing. Leaking oil from my strainer was running down the starter onto the crankcase area below the starter.
You might want to check your strainer cap for a leak also.
 
Lean??
The oil beneath the starter may be a sign that your starter seal is bad, or has become dislodged from it's proper position.
Do you have one of Richard Coote's transmission vent line installed?
This can help reduce pressure in the tranny and prevent the starter seal from becoming dislodged.
You said that you check the engine oil and it's always good.
If the problem is the starter seal, then the oil is coming from the primary/tranny, not the engine, so your engine oil level will not change.

I had a bit of oil collecting in the same area. I found that the oil strainer on the oil feed line was leaking and the strainer body was in contact with the right side of the starter housing. Leaking oil from my strainer was running down the starter onto the crankcase area below the starter.
You might want to check your strainer cap for a leak also.
My Naked came from the factory with a transmission vent already.
I suppose I should check and see if it’s actually venting and not plugged up some how.

I’m aware of the strainer issue, I had that happen after I bought the bike and the cam cover gasket blew out. I had a hell of a time getting the o-ring to seat properly without leaking, I ended up using a large gauge o-ring and it works great. Plus it makes more contact area to seal.
The original o-ring on the in-line strainer is a joke.

I had my oil light come on last spring and took my mechanical oil pressure gauge to check oil pressure reading. This is what my low oil pressure was from. A blown gasket around the oil filter.
Dealing with that inline oil strainer o-ring was a pain.
 
I hope its just bad gas Voodoo. Mine was sitting for a while and you'd swear there was a box of rocks in the crankcase. Drained old gas and refueled and now it's a running like a top.
 
I hope its just bad gas Voodoo. Mine was sitting for a while and you'd swear there was a box of rocks in the crankcase. Drained old gas and refueled and now it's a running like a top.
Yeah but I just put this tank of BP 93 octane gas in about 60 miles ago and it ran strong until yesterday.
 
I had my oil light come on last spring and took my mechanical oil pressure gauge to check oil pressure reading. This is what my low oil pressure was from. A blown gasket around the oil filter.

How did you know the gasket was the problem, was it passing oil, did you have a leak?
 
He had low oil pressure . The oil was pumping past the gasket into the timing side sump area . Somewhat Bypassing the High Side oil gallery . The oil pressure light told the story and I think Voodoo checked and his pressure was low.
 
Hello Voodoo , Are both the bikes Euro 3 New Omex ECU's ? The reason I ask some have had issues with the O2 sensors causing uneven fueling at low revs. The oil leaking at the air box has been seen on other Domi type machines and is because of the location of the air filter at the bottom , oil will collect there .
 
Right, I confused the timing side gasket with the oil filter Oring.
Makes sense.
 
How did you know the gasket was the problem, was it passing oil, did you have a leak?
My light came on.
I knew the oil level was good.
The light was on at idle but went off about 2000 rpm.
I used my pressure tester and reading was 0-5 if I remember correctly.
Oil was getting to the pump.
But the oil filter wasn’t getting much oil so I pulled the cam cover off and noticed the gasket.
 
Hello Voodoo , Are both the bikes Euro 3 New Omex ECU's ? The reason I ask some have had issues with the O2 sensors causing uneven fueling at low revs. The oil leaking at the air box has been seen on other Domi type machines and is because of the location of the air filter at the bottom , oil will collect there .
I don’t have O2 sensors.
 
Oh that's right , they have been pulled for the Domi pipes and map. So if you change the plugs , same stumbling and popping ? Can you check the Injectors or send them for cleaning and testing like iwilson did ? While at it , look inside the fuel rail and is it new billet type or steel tube ?
 
Oh that's right , they have been pulled for the Domi pipes and map. So if you change the plugs , same stumbling and popping ? Can you check the Injectors or send them for cleaning and testing like iwilson did ? While at it , look inside the fuel rail and is it new billet type or steel tube ?
I just bought new spark plugs today. I’ll put them in after I log a compression test.
Fuel rail is billet aluminum.
 
Voodooo, regarding the oil collecting below the starter motor. It can be caused by oil weeping out of the pipe connected to the crankcase breather. The pipe isn’t a particularly tight fit and a lot of oil gets pumped into the air/oil separator that has to drain back in again. Speaking from my own personal experience so your situation may be different - but could be worth looking at.
 
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