Hitchcocks Forum

Hi, I've tried tosearch for this coming up previously, but ccant find a specific thread.....the thing is, Im getting a build up of " mayonaise" again in the crankcase breather which is supossed to empty into the catch can to be recycled via the air filter and timing side. Ive never liked this systemand am strongly considering replacing the lot with just 2 duck bills on the timing (inlet) and crankcase ( outlet)

Has anyone done this on an ElectraX before? Any words of warning or encouragement would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Steve

Hello Steve

I no longer have my ‘x’, but I did something similar as I too didn’t like the idea of mayonnaise getting back into the oil. I kept the catch tank, vented the airside into a long open tube to the rear of the bike (like we all did back in the day, but you could do a duckbill too). With the liquid drain side, I disconnected it from the timing case and kept a tube running down vertically, terminating in an old petrol tap so that periodically I could empty it into an open tin in the garage. Worked well for me!

Stephen

It is an absolute (expletive deleted of a job. If I did it again I would remove the battery and battery carrier. You will also need to remove the seat, to get at the nut on top of the catch can, (you may also need to the bracket holding the catch can on so that you can take the catch can apart.
After all the warnings on here about the catch cam needing emptying, there was (expletive deleted, ) all in the catch can which obviously had never been removed since 2006 when the bike was built. So at least 10 years and nothing in the can.

Thanks for both replies. I changed the oil about 500 miles ago and its just starting to bet a bit frothy! Catch can empty, as usual.....

Its worth the hassle of taking off the catch can to protect the engine from mayo in the long term. PO51UHD, I suspect that the crankcase breather is the real culprit, as thats where the mayo is made. So I might modify your system and leave timing side attached. I have 'clear' pipes so i can see it starting to turn mayolike. Did you find you lost oil using your system? Steve

I have to wonder why I do not get the "mayonnaise " problem with my Royal Oilfield that others seem to be plagued with.
I do use both a petrol and oil treatment on all of our motorcycles.
I took my Electra X (ish) out for a ride around the Lizard Peninsula yesterday. After letting the bike have a "sunbathe" for an hour first, I carried out the usual pre press the starter button procedure. The engine burst into life at the first touch of the button, and I had a very enjoyable ride, no-one tried to kill me and I only had one missed gear change.

I wish Iknew papasmurf, I was told tnat is was caused by doing short runs, so condensation didnt get to 'boil off' so I dont use it for poping to the local shops anymore. Have to confess I dont use any additives, mainly because I dont understand how they work and am suspicious of adding snake oil, which is never cheap! Please could you enlighten me and
Ill give it a go. Cheers, Steve

Hi Papasmurf, just re read your original reply, so you took off your catch can, maybe thats the reason you have escaped it?

steveW, after a lot of swearing and several hours I did get the can off, only to find there was nothing in it, which led to a lot more swearing. If it had not got any "mayonnaise" in it after more than 10 years, it was a waste of several hours of my time.

Ah, but the reassurance value?



Steve,



there have been "a good few" solutions down the years. The one that worked best on my Electra-X was as follows:



1. Remove or at least disconnect the catch-can and use a short-ish piece of the original breather pipe with the 90° bend to hook up the oil tank breather union to a non-return valve;



2. Connect a longer open-ended hose from the NRV to the back of the bike;



3. Block off the feeds from the catch-can to the back of the timing chest and the primary drive.



A.

I've said it before. My 350 bullet made gallons of mayo, even with a simple duckbill breather on the oil tank stub. The speed of mayo production was proportional to the distance travelled and continued at a high level even when I was doing an average of 150 miles per day over a 3 month period. Blowing a hefty slug of mayo out of the breather hose into a paper towel at each fuel stop became part of my routine.



The mayo production stopped entirely the day I fitted one of our hosts scavenge pump pressure relief valves and I haven't seen a hint of it since.



I will leave others to postulate as to why this should be the case.