'14 500 XCW Oil Leaking

Sideboom · Feb 23, 2014

This morning I too the bike out of the heated shop and loaded it in the truck. I decided to leave the bike idle while I traveled. I use it for work and wanted to make sure it would be good to go. It was -32c when I left town and got as low as -35c in places. The bike idled for approx. 1hr, and when I stopped to check on it I found oil in the box of the truck. The oil smells gassier than it probably should and looks like it is coming from the top of the motor. It starts and runs fine, no smoke or anything. I know there is other topics on gas in the oil but I could not find anything specific to oil on the ground. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Rush44 · Feb 23, 2014

Check your crankcase breather. Most likely its plugged and the case is venting the build up pressure from the top of the case. Its happened to me before and I no longer run the vent line into the airbox. -32c is INSANELY cold and there is a limit to what a bike can put up with.

Throndson · Feb 24, 2014

If you potentially overfilled your oil it can spew up your crankcase breather and into your air box if you still have it plumbed in there. It will leak out all over your motor and truck as you described. Also if you went for a hard ride previously your oil is probably diluted with gas (from EFI system overfuelling) and likely over capacity which makes it easier to spew out of your breather.
Ive had this happen on my husky 511 when idling.

M5- · Feb 24, 2014

Rush44 said:
Check your crankcase breather. Most likely its plugged and the case is venting the build up pressure from the top of the case. Its happened to me before and I no longer run the vent line into the airbox. -32c is INSANELY cold and there is a limit to what a bike can put up with.

So did that gasket stay put or did you need to put in new one?

M5

Rush44 · Feb 24, 2014

M5- said:
So did that gasket stay put or did you need to put in new one?

M5

So far so good. It puked oil again the next day when my breather again froze up. I cut it at the turn, plugged the airbox side, and now just let the breather vent onto the back of the case. Sure it leaves a gooey mess when it does, but now I can tell when I'm having a temp issue. I just added a thermo-bob stat last week with Randy and so far my last two powder rides have been great. Just get that breather out of the box.

KMMAC · Feb 25, 2014

oil breathers

Rush44 said:
So far so good. It puked oil again the next day when my breather again froze up. I cut it at the turn, plugged the airbox side, and now just let the breather vent onto the back of the case. Sure it leaves a gooey mess when it does, but now I can tell when I'm having a temp issue. I just added a thermo-bob stat last week with Randy and so far my last two powder rides have been great. Just get that breather out of the box.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried using a piece of an oil spill blanket wrapped around a screen filter then plugged into the breather line? I ask because some of the oil spill rags seem to be water resistant, that is if they are for oil only.. This would also help contain any oil residue and could be changed from time to time..
Just a thought................

Rush44 · Feb 25, 2014

I'm not sure about other bikes (it never happened on my 11 KX450) but the 13 KTM 450 SXF has the breather going into the airbox (which I have since removed). What actually freezes isn't the line but the metal fitting that connects the breather to the airbox. That connector gets super cold and any moisture that vents from the case starts to collect as ice in that fitting. As time goes by the hole gets smaller and smaller until eventually it plugs and the case starts to puke oil from the top of the case.

In this case simply removing the breather from the box and plugging the box fixes the issues. So far no problems.

Sideboom · Feb 26, 2014

That is exactly what happened. I put the bike back in the shop, thawed it out and changed the oil. Everything worked out fine. I rode it all day yesterday with no problems. Gaskets are fine. No leaking oil.

There was a lot of moisture in the vent line. It is situated in such a way that it is a p-trap, which would not help the situation all that much.
I will be making some mods this week.

Thanks for the input.

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'14 500 XCW Oil Leaking

Sideboom

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Rush44

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Throndson

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M5-

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Rush44

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KMMAC

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Rush44

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Sideboom

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