Possible oil issue

[sooprvylyn]

Hey guys, question:


Should the oil level sight glass look empty when the bike is running? Not running its at proper level, but when running it drops down below thw site glass. When I stop rhe engine it slowly goes back up.

93 K1100rs


Oil pressure light is working fine, and it's off when the bike is running.

I have just never paid attention to this previously so just checking if this is nornal.


Update: looks like oil is collecting in my crankcase cover. A substantial amount. Enough that when I umdo the bolts it's not only dripping from the bottom of the cover, but also from the bottom edge of the sparkplug cutout. This doesn't feel normal to me.


What could be going on here? Or am I just being paranoid and this is all normal?

[natalena]

There's much more experienced diagnostician's here, but the sight glass not showing a level when running, then refilling when stopped, is normal for my K75S. Likewise, low oil warning has never lit up. Brick smokes like crazy on start-up, occasionally, as expected ... usually at a gas station or restaurant entrance.

[Chaos]

Your crankcase cover has spark plug cutouts?

[sooprvylyn]

It's the cylinder head side, left side engine cover...maybe it's called something else. There is a big ass hole in the middle to accommodate the spark plugs.

[sooprvylyn]

There's much more experienced diagnostician's here, but the sight glass not showing a level when running, then refilling when stopped, is normal for my K75S. Likewise, low oil warning has never lit up. Brick smokes like crazy on start-up, occasionally, as expected ... usually at a gas station or restaurant entrance.

Yeah, I figured out the sight glass thing is normal. Was more concerned about the oil in the engine cover. Others suggest this is rather normal too.

Was most just being cautious since I haven't really noticed these things before. I've always checked pil level w the bike off in the past, so it freaked me out a little.

[Chaos]

just kidding, on my K75 there was never more that a tablespoon of so of oil in the valve cover when I took it off.  I'd think the k1100 would be similar.  Probably more oil in there if on side stand.

[frankenduck]

The water/oil pump pumps oil up into the engine and circulates the oil when the bike is running. This includes inside of the VALVE cover in order to lubricate the valves. When the bike stops running that oil drains backs into the oil sump. This is why the rider manual recommends waiting "a few minutes" after the bike is turned off to check the sight glass.

The CRANKCASE cover is on the right of the engine because the CRANKshaft is there.

[sooprvylyn]

Thanks for the reassurances. Sorry I got thr covers mixed up.  The crankcase breather is on the same side as the valve cover so made sense in my head.

[frankenduck]

Easy mistake to make. BMW calls it a vent hose but it gets mistakenly called a crankcase breather hose because it's connected to the crankcase on other motors.

[Laitch]

The water/oil pump pumps oil up into the engine and circulates the oil when the bike is running. This includes inside of the VALVE cover in order to lubricate the valves.

Also under that cover are two camshafts. It's sometimes imperfectly called a valve cover—like it was in olden times—but there's a lot going on under there and BMW calls that cover the Cylinder Head Cover. If the camshafts under it aren't well-lubricated, too, you won't be going anywhere for long. : However, what BMW calls something is occasionally warped by translation, for example, what they call a differential, so that's the rest of the story.



After the engine is shut down, all surfaces under there drip residual oil that eventually gathers along the lower joints of the cover—a little above the spark plug well joint and some along the seam under the exhaust valves. The lubricating system isn't under pressure when the engine is shut down so—like Chaos indicated—there won't be much oil released.

[Kaos]

Do you remember filling it up to spec, and or how much oil you've put in it.
 According to the service manual, the maximum permissible oil consumption is about 1 quart every 1,500 to 2,000 miles.
Filling it up should be at about 3/4 of the glass - standing up straight -  so you might want to top it of every now and then.
Seeing it drop below that level when heated/running is normal.