Where did my oil go?

[trip]

I recently went through a situation with my 2005 Nomad. I sought help and found that the problem was......well, me. I decided to explain this so that if anyone else goes through this, they can look it up in the archives.

Over the past few months, I had noticed form time to time that I was loosing oil. At least I thought I was. I would fill the crankcase with oil to the desired level and check it later after a trip or something and find it low again.

I just got back from a 1500 mile trip and checked my oil and found it low again. So, I checked with Blowndodge and asked what he thought.

We went through the usual checks.....spark plugs for oil residue.....tailpipe for oil residue......both were clean as a whistle. No oil under the bike in the morning....no oil blowing anywhere. So where the hell was the oil going?

Then BD asked me when I was checking my oil...was it after I started the engine and it was hot, or did I let it cool and drain all night before checking. After thinking about it, I pretty well checked it at all times.....warm, hot and cold. Which turned out to be the problem. I wasn't checking my oil level by a stable standard.

The way BD explained it to me, it sometimes takes all night for oil to drain from the heads into the pan of a twin engine. And the pan doesn't hold much oil anyway. So, if you check the oil level when it's hot, you might get a different reading than if you let it cool...sometimes a 50% change in reading!

So, after letting my Nomad cool and drain all night, I checked it the next morning...the level is OK. As long as I check my oil level in the mornings, when the oil is all drained and cool, all should be OK.

Trip