radioouman
Diamond Member
I'm outside cleaning my truck this weekend, and a one of our neighbors has his Harley out. He comes over to me and says "You have a Harley, right?" I said no, so he tells me that he is changing the oil and the manual doesn't say how many quarts of oil it needs. Before I can answer, he tells me that he has put 6 quarts of oil in it already, and it's not showing up on the dipstick. When he said 6 quarts, I just about lost it, but instead just said "That's a lot of oil, you wouldn't think it would take that much." And let it go. He says that he is going to the store to get more oil!
He comes back with the oil, adds more to it, and then decides to start it and let it idle outside his garage for about 15 minutes. This thing is loud, and when you are in a complex of townhouses, you piss off a lot of people by idling one of these bikes for a long time. All I could tell is that it sounded like it was gurgling a little. It didn't idle badly, and it didn't blow blue smoke. So I didn't think anything of it, other than I wish he'd go ride it so I could hear myself think.
He pulls away and drives to the end of our 1/4 mile road, turns around and comes back. He is followed by a huge cloud of blue smoke!! He shuts it off, and I go into the garage laughing... I'm guessing that he had so much oil in that engine, that it was forced into the cylinders and burned!
So he drains out almost a full gallon (4 quarts) of oil and let's it idle for a good 20-25 minutes, reving it, and holding it there..... so annoying! Eventually he took it out again and it appeared to run OK.
How much oil are Harley's supposed to hold?
He comes back with the oil, adds more to it, and then decides to start it and let it idle outside his garage for about 15 minutes. This thing is loud, and when you are in a complex of townhouses, you piss off a lot of people by idling one of these bikes for a long time. All I could tell is that it sounded like it was gurgling a little. It didn't idle badly, and it didn't blow blue smoke. So I didn't think anything of it, other than I wish he'd go ride it so I could hear myself think.
He pulls away and drives to the end of our 1/4 mile road, turns around and comes back. He is followed by a huge cloud of blue smoke!! He shuts it off, and I go into the garage laughing... I'm guessing that he had so much oil in that engine, that it was forced into the cylinders and burned!
So he drains out almost a full gallon (4 quarts) of oil and let's it idle for a good 20-25 minutes, reving it, and holding it there..... so annoying! Eventually he took it out again and it appeared to run OK.
How much oil are Harley's supposed to hold?
