So! I finally took the newly jetted and rebuilt bike on the highway for the 170 mile trip from tallahassee to jacksonville. With the new jetting, where running 75mph indicated felt like a lot of effort before, it now runs 88-90 indicated without a hitch. Indicated means subtract 10% for actual speed.
About halfway into the trip, i checked the oil at a rest stop, perfect, exactly the same level as it was when I left. hooray.
Satisfied with the performance of Old Sh*tty, I ran the last third of the trip around 7k on the tach just to make some time and see how she felt. (mad vibes at that RPM if you wanted to know, haha)

Now, she ran totally fine all the way home, parked, started up later with no effort, moved 10 feet, parked.
Later that night, i went out to check the oil, noticing there was a fat drip underneath, started it up on the CS, ran a few minutes, turned it off, waited 5 or so minutes. checked the oil- LOW oil, like, maybe 1mm into the hashes above L.
   
-Looking underneath, there seems to be an oil leak, the oil pan is covered in oil, the centerstand is covered in oil. most of the oilpan wetness is concentrated on the left side, and I notice: Hey, that looks like a missing bolt... One of the rear case bolts is missing, and the rear of the case is oil covered. I can't remember which side, off the top of my head, but one of these:




now my questions and concerns:
1. Could my oil leak be from this here hole? (where the bolt isn't) Is it my oil pan leaking? Did I do something wrong to cause this?

2. anyone have the proper bolt they can send me to replace the missing one? maybe if you've got a totally blown engine you can yank one out, and i'll send you 5 bucks or something. (that would be really nice.)

3. What the hell?

Thankfully, the total lost oil apears to be about 1/2-2/3 of a quart, so I wasn't danger low, and nothing bad happened to the engine, but if anyone has some thought to throw at me, any input is appreciated.

If I'm not mistaken, there should not be any oil coming from those holes at all (solid aluminum up the entire way).

Sorry Funderb - going to have to find out where else it's coming from. Clean / dry / powder the engine / ride / check again.

As said, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN the engine and pan and go from there. Putting cardboard or something under it also might help point the location

QuoteIf I'm not mistaken, there should not be any oil coming from those holes at all (solid aluminum up the entire way).

I hope not, it would make splitting the case really hard if it were!

Yeah, when I have more time I'll get it all cleaned up and see where all this crap is coming from. The good news is that all of the gaskets from my top end repair are in perfect order and everything above the sprocket is dry as a bone. hooray. There's a t-shirt under it for now, but overnight i got nothing. nuts.

I have no less than 3 cans of Brake Cleaner on the shelf in the Garage at any time.  Good for cleaning off Oil, Tar, and anything else.

Just don't get it on your hands.  Takes all of the oil off of your skin, and then it gets dry, cracks, and hurts like hell.  Ask me how I know this.

Quote from: jestercinti on December 12, 2012, 12:01:11 PM
I have no less than 3 cans of Brake Cleaner on the shelf in the Garage at any time.  Good for cleaning off Oil, Tar, and anything else.

Just don't get it on your hands.  Takes all of the oil off of your skin, and then it gets dry, cracks, and hurts like hell.  Ask me how I know this.

+1  ... and the cheapest brake cleaner works well for this type of thing ($2 for huge can), and it dries quickly

- Bboy

Brake cleaner is also good for offing hornets and wasps. Kills 'em instantly.

I learned a brake cleaner lesson once, thought it was the electr0clean and used it on the fuze panel in my 1974 vw thing, got some on the plastic cover... goodbye plastic. Finding the proper part to replace it was... entertaining.


on topic, i'll clean 'er up and report back soonish.

Update:


The leak was definitely from the case seam where that bolt was missing...  the bolt has been replaced, so I should be good to go.

In other news, the front brake was a little squishy, so in effort to bleed it, i tried to remove the reservoir cover, both machine screws snapped off inside the res, snapped off an easy-out in the one i tried to extract. Now I'm at ordering a new MC. I have sourced one off a newer model SV650. appears to be identical. I'll try that.
Also, my girlfriend of 3 years and I split. So I'm about 1 for 3 here. 

on the lighter side, a while back i convinced my buddy to buy an 07 gs500, and we've been riding together regularly since I've been home. And yes, the reservoir is still broken. I simply lashed the cap on with cordalet trucker's hitch style. It works. I dont care.


hope everyone's having as good a winter as we are down here! in the mid 70s to low 80s every day.

Damn.....

That's just bad news all around man.

Sorry to hear about the relationship troubles.  Sometimes it's better to break things off than it is to continue something that is not going to work in the long term.  At least you weren't married with kids!

+1 for you checking the oil when riding long distance.  I didn't think my engine was consuming oil, then ended up putting in 1/2 - 2/3 of a quart recently when I realized it was low after 1900 miles.