Grease in right side air box... ?!

[deniska]

I am just a bit worried. While I am waiting for my tank to be repainted, I decided to get started on the Caddman mod. As a first step, I thought I'd open the right-side airbox and think through the steps. Well, before I opened it, I noticed that the bottom of the cover, right along where it connects with the plastic backplate, was a bit oily or greasy. So I took the cover off, and noticed there was grease on the bottom. It seemed to have come out of the little hole on the bottom (there is a sort of a divider about 1/3 of the way from bottom up, and a small hole between the bottom and the divider.

This stuff didn't look like oil -- more like grease, gray with a bit of a whitish streak. Not too much, but more than a couple of little specs. There were actually a couple of specs further up -- on the rear solenoid, for example. I wiped everything off, but this has me really worried, as this is in the airbox, close to the air intake valves. Is this unusual? What the heck could this be?

Thanks.

[trikebubble]

Could it be filter oil?

[deniska]

Don't know... didn't have any brown tint to it. How would filter oil get there?

[ppark]

Crankcase vent is routed to the air box so any oil that comes out gets burned in the engine. If you fill up the oil too high, you could have more oil coming from the vent. Check out discussion on Krankvent.

[trikebubble]

Originally Posted by deniska

Don't know... didn't have any brown tint to it. How would filter oil get there?

Like air filter oil maybe.

[Frankt07]

Originally Posted by ppark

Crankcase vent is routed to the air box so any oil that comes out gets burned in the engine. If you fill up the oil too high, you could have more oil coming from the vent. Check out discussion on Krankvent.

i seem to think the same. and the whitishness to it may be from time and condensation turning the oil milky.
check your oil level, keep an eye on it, but i wouldnt worry about it too much

[deniska]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just watch it for now.

[NY_Guy]

Originally Posted by deniska

This stuff didn't look like oil -- more like grease, gray with a bit of a whitish streak. Not too much, but more than a couple of little specs. There were actually a couple of specs further up -- on the rear solenoid, for example. I wiped everything off, but this has me really worried, as this is in the airbox, close to the air intake valves. Is this unusual? What the heck could this be? Thanks.

Blowback from the crank (esp if overfilled and revving engine). Solved by using a crankcase vent. KrankVent is one option, but mine was pretty noisy (so didn't install one on the new bike). Gadget has some options on his web site.

[Billy D.]

I don't know this for fact, I was told that the greese was put there to help catch the fine particles of sand and other junk, I don't know, but it sounded lodgical.