Well folks, I just got back from draining the excess oil from the bike. What I am now sharing may seem stupid, but hey, hopefully someone else may learn from my mistake.
As I mentioned earlier, I had checked the site glass after adding the 1.5 quarts of Syntec and it looked fine - right at the high mark. BUT, having gone back and looked again tonight, the site glass was completely filled when the bike was cold! I drained the excess until the oil level was 2/3rds of the way up between the low and high levels on the site glass. The excess? Would you believe 1.5 CUPS! Yikes!
Looking back over my oil change, I did three things wrong:
- 1) I was checking the level while the tail end of the bike was elevated about an inch on jackstands. Since the sight glass is toward the rear end of the housing, it is not surprising it was giving me a false low reading.
2) I blindly trusted the bottles and put what I thought was 1.5 quarts in.
3) I didn't do the math.
Next time I know to check the oil level after the bike is back to flat... I thought I had, but I must have had a senior moment.
Next time I will pour the oil into a measuring device before putting it in the engine. My "cager" days betrayed me: I am too used to just opening quarts and dumping them into the hole.
Next time I will believe my third grade teacher and realize that one day math may save my life. The engine cover is clearly marked "1300 ml" and since I was educated in the 1960's that means absolutely nothing to me - I spent my time learning "a pint is a pound the world around" instead. But luckily, now I have Excel. That mysterious and even-sounding "1300 ml" really means 1.37 quarts or five-and-a-half cups (5.496829 to be exact). Meaning that by adding a quart-and-a-half I was adding a half-cup too much. Since I have already admitted to having a heavy thumb on this, it was probabily closer to three-quarters-of-a-cup or more.
My cup-and-a-half error seems to be evenly split between poor technique (the one-inch rear elevation must throw the sight glass off about three-quarters-of-a-cup) and failure to follow directions. (Note: I did drain the engine completely - let it drip until nothing was coming out -- but again, if the oil pools forward of the drain plug, perhaps some of the old oil remained. The oil did slighty darken after I drove it the four-mile test run: don't know if that is from heat or old stuff mixing in... just being honest.)
So, tomorrow, on the way to work, I will ramp the old girl up to 60 in fifth and see if perhaps the slippage was due to overfilling the oil (if the symptoms go away) or if it is due to the oil itself (if the slip continues). I will let you folks know either way.
Sorry to be such a bonehead about all of this, but I am still learning. Thanks for the syphoning suggestions BadBob.
-Bob
:oops:
P.S., I did then crank her up, let her warm, and checked the oil level on flat ground. The level was about the same.