linemech31
New member
Today i was working on the daughters xlv540, swapped in a better seat and hood cowl. After completeing the work i ran it on a track stand for a few minutes and noticed the strangest thing. After doing a high rpm burst of throttle as the engine slowed down through 4-6k rpm the oil in the oil tank was churning. Almost looked like oil was being forced up from the bottom. I did this a few times and never saw any bubbles just looked like sombody was shaking the oil up. I dont think it was the vibration. Cany anybody explain this? It worried me enough to premix the fuel in the tank 100:1 untill i know whats going on.
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RON HYDRAULIC YAM
Member
Should be vibration waves ,but you never know...
I used a SR540 eng from around that era in my 93 VK540 and it
injected into the manifold ports only....the newer VK injected into
a special tee before the fuel pump...
You maybe able to slide the clip back on line into manifold , pull
the line and watch the oil while the engine runs (already have pre mixed)
I needed to warm up the hard lines with a heat gun to make them
flexible at the time (winter).
Someone more familiar with your model might write in but things get
slow in the summer
You could remove some oil and watch again and then almost fill it
and look again
Ron
I used a SR540 eng from around that era in my 93 VK540 and it
injected into the manifold ports only....the newer VK injected into
a special tee before the fuel pump...
You maybe able to slide the clip back on line into manifold , pull
the line and watch the oil while the engine runs (already have pre mixed)
I needed to warm up the hard lines with a heat gun to make them
flexible at the time (winter).
Someone more familiar with your model might write in but things get
slow in the summer
You could remove some oil and watch again and then almost fill it
and look again
Ron
Been a while since I've been here. Too warm out I guess. 
I have an 85 XLV also and have never seen or heard of this happening. There will be some vibration waves obviously but for it to churn like you are saying isn't something I've heard about.
I know there is an oil return on these, its the one that comes off the left side of the oil tank (if sitting on the sled). The other oil hose goes to the oil filter.
Consider this: In this heat the oil is probably the consistency of water, perhaps its running really rich sending all that un-needed oil back to the oil tank causing what looks to be a churn effect. I would wait until it cools down and see if it still happens.
I have a puddle of oil under my sled right now, no idea where its coming from....
I have an 85 XLV also and have never seen or heard of this happening. There will be some vibration waves obviously but for it to churn like you are saying isn't something I've heard about.
I know there is an oil return on these, its the one that comes off the left side of the oil tank (if sitting on the sled). The other oil hose goes to the oil filter.
Consider this: In this heat the oil is probably the consistency of water, perhaps its running really rich sending all that un-needed oil back to the oil tank causing what looks to be a churn effect. I would wait until it cools down and see if it still happens.
I have a puddle of oil under my sled right now, no idea where its coming from....
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linemech31
New member
Took a closer look at it again and it seems to be a shock wave. The oil is thin due to the 90deg heat. going to keep an eye on it this winter. I have a lot of labor in this sled. Got two of them from the bone yard and made one runner. The only thing that annoyed me was having to pull the seat and fuel tank to remove the airbox.