Mystery greasy buildup

[randynelson]

To ask the ubiquitous question: Has anybody out there seen this? On the front of my left side cover (tool box) is a fairly heavy accumulation of greasy vapor grime. Eighth inch thich. This area is directly behind the left side of the cylinders and looks like it has been blown back from the cylinder or air filter area, but there is no trace of this forward of the side cover. I did find a droplet of oil inside my airfilter cover from my K&N filter, but no more.

Am I getting somesort of blowback from the air intake, exhuasting out of the filter cover?

What say you, riders of Nomad?

Smokey

[ndbigfish]

How old is the bike? Are you running dino or synthetic oil? Is there any oily residue on the cylinder fins or heads? My first area to check would be the rocker covers. The covers might just be loose or the gasket might have a small hole in it. Carefully observe around the rocker cover perimeter; these are the chrome covers on top of the cylinder heads.

[randynelson]

Thanks for the reply and idea. I will endeavor to be more specific in the future. It is an 05 with 28k of trouble free miles. I have done all the required services myself. I am running AMSOIL
10-40w. I will check the rocker cover. I do occasionally get a knock in the top of the rear cylinder that sounds like a lifter problem. I added SeaFoam once and it quieted down. It comes back sometimes. I am worried about it longterm.

Keep the shiny side up.

[ndbigfish]

Some of the older bikes have had rocker cover leaks or cam plug leaks. Synthetic oil seems to leak easier than dino oil. I had a lot of top end motor noise with dino oil, so I switched to synthetic. I have used Seaform, but I prefer MMO. MMO is more cost effective and I have had great results in my vehicles. Others with similar age bikes will chime in; I'm guessing their out riding this morning.

[macmac]

Seems odd. Since you serviced the bike your self, have you discovered a plugged tubing coming out just below the left side as seated air filter cover?

If the plug is missing, ie: fell out this might happen.

The plug is about 6mm / 1/4" diameter, and ends with a square lug you can pinch with the thumb and finger, black in color.

On the other side is where the tubing comes from, and i can't say why. What this tube is, is a vapor drain and on the right side backing plate it is located at 6:00.

The tubing runs all the way across the engine and dead ends on the left under and behind the stock air filter, so just maybe the plug fell out and collected vapors of oil, and maybe water are this cause.