• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

2011 Te511 Oil Spillage Help

P

polybash

Husqvarna
AA Class
As brief background, my bike is a 2011 TE511. It has about 3500 miles on it. I'm not sure about the hours because the hour meter never worked when I bought it new, didn't realize it until after the warranty expired. I have bored out the fuel body by about 3mm and installed an FMF exhaust system. I am the only owner of the bike. Regular oil changes have been performed. Other than opening the valve cover to install the ZipTy breather mods, I have not opened the engine. The bike was garaged for about 1.5 years due to some personal life stuff. And then it hasn't been ridden regularly over the past 2 years, but I did change the oil after sitting and it has new Engine Ice in the radiators.
I'm hoping you can help me out with the bike blowing out oil through the air box. I have the ZipTy valve cover breather mod and the return tank installed on my bike. For a while I was running Maxima MX530 in my bike at a full quart (on the recommendation of a mechanic friend to help keep the bike running cooler). I would get occasional leaking after long stretches of high RPM running (typically street going to and from the trails), but never anything significant. I finished the case of oil I had and decided to try running the manufacturer recommended oil weight, 10w-40, to see if it would help or hurt the situation. My local shop recommended Motorex 10w-40, so I got a bottle and used it on my next oil change.
This morning I was making a short run, about 7 miles, up the freeway to get to a local OHV area. I was averaging between 60 and 65 up the slow lane and didn't think too much about it, other than it was a little faster than my typical 55-60 up the slow lane. When I went to exit the freeway is when I started experiencing problems. The first problem I found was my clutch lever had no resistance when I went pull it in to downshift going down the ramp. Fortunately it is a lesser used ramp with no traffic so I was able to roll the stop sign and get to a pull out area. My second problem I found after I got off my bike was it looked like oil had exploded out of the motor. Fortunately after some looking, the motor hadn't exploded or any other catastrophic event. But the oil was coming from the air box. After sitting for a few minutes my clutch resistance started returning, leading me to think the fluid got too hot and wouldn't compress, similar to brake fade. I wasn't comfortable riding the bike back home, so after a phone call and 45 minutes of waiting my dad arrived to truck me back down the hill.
My questions are these: what can I do to finally eliminate the oil puking from the air box (again I do have the ZipTy mods)? Will I need to replace the hydraulic clutch fluid? Is there a better oil I should be running? What tricks have you guys done to help these bikes run cooler?
Thank you for all the help. Have a great day.
 
one problem at a time; since oil blow-by in your air filter is the biggie (and the title) lets concentrate on that. your clutch problem is probably just a bleed issue to get the air out of the slave cylinder or insulate the line around the header (put new fluid in anyway- it's DOT4 brake fluid... cheap). why do you think it's running hot (or hotter than normal)? if it's spewing a lot coolant then it's hot. At the speeds I'm guessing you ride, you don't need a working fan- but the thermostat needs to open so take a look with the cap off to insure coolant is circulating (lean against the wall on the right side for your left hand cap). IMO the 449/511 do run a bit hotter than people are used to (and it's not a problem). hours- on the xlites, the hour meter never worked IIRC. with the mention of freeway time I'd guess you have just about 100hours (35mph average)

oil change: IIRC (again) you need about 1100ml of oil (38oz) with a full filter/oil change, and ZTR mod adds more oil capacity. I lowered my sons 511 oil level when he first got the bike to solve the oil into the air filter problem, but really it's the crankcase ventilation (which you have seemed to have solved). how much are you putting in? You're fine with 10w-40, but lotsa people here use 0-40 Mobile 1. I recommend it too, but it's not going to solve any problems you may have.

your original vent is still blocked off correct? we need to figure out why engine oil is getting up into the air box. I doubt it's something like a broken ring but who knows. maybe it's a clogged liquid return or a mouse nest in your air filter drain?

lots of action on the FB page, but stay tuned here also for advice from facebook-adverse users.
 
That is a lot of good information, thank you! With regards to the bike getting hot, I have had some coolant spewing (I've been looking at ways to fabricate a coolant recovery bottle), again after some extended street riding on the way home from the trails. My bike does have a fan, but come to think of it, I don't know if I have ever checked to see if it is spinning (that should have been the first thing I checked...). I will check to make sure the coolant is moving though.

I try to avoid the freeways, they are boring as all get out, but I do typically ride out of the garage to the trails, so hours do add up.

On a typical oil change I will put in a full quart (or liter, can't remember how the bottles are measured at the moment) of oil, whether I do the filter or not. It sounds like I may be putting too much oil in for a typical change. The ZipTy kit I have has a hose that goes from the overflow container bolted to the side of the engine up to where the original crankcase breather went in the air box. I'm sure that is how oil is getting up there. I tried modifying the air box a little bit with some rubber nipples (one as a primary drain pointing down and one inverted to act as a secondary/overflow/breather) and a piece of hose to get any oil down to the ground, but today it seemed like the air box got so full it went out the secondary too. I looked up the 0w-40, it doesn't say it is motorcycle specific and it gave me pause. But you're the second person I've read recommend it, so I will have to give it a try.

Thanks again for the help!
 
mobile 1- get the euro car stuff, not japanese. it will not mention motorcycles: NBFD.

oil volume- I believe you are NOT using enough (should be way over a quart). OTOH, this is not causing your problem, I would think.

if your problem showed up after a long storage time, we may be looking at a clog in the oil vent plumbing (liquid oil or mice or bugs etc). but if true, it also should have blown out after a while once pressure built up (except if it was bees/wasps building a mud nest somewhere).

temporarily run a vent hose from the ZTR head fitting up to the handlebars (away from your face). check the sight glass for proper level. Ride. you shouldn't have any real oil coming out; drops occasionally. you may smell engine oil- no worries. you can put a filter on the end if you want, but really- with positive crankcase pressure that 99.99% engines have, it's not a problem.

if you do this quick experiment, check or plug the ZTR system so unfiltered air does not get into the clean side of the airbox.
 
Thank you for the tips, I will work on your suggestions throughout this week and see what happens.

One question I didn't ask last time, I have never bled a hydraulic clutch before. Is it a similar process to brakes? If so, where is the port to bleed the fluid from? Is it behind the small rubber piece adjacent to where to the hose goes into the engine case? Thanks again, have a great day!
 
Trench is on it, with the Ziptyracing Kit you should be able to run 1200cc/ml of oil. Without it I always ran one quart n no issues. By the sound of it you ran it too long at too hi rpms on the freeway. I would pull off the return hose to air box n run it n see if you still have the problem. If so you may have a blockage either old oil build up or a nest. Good luck
 
download the shop manuel for oil quantity, but i saw it was 1 litre if you don't change your oil filter and i had the same problem with the oil coming back up ,
i did the mod with the dmg and it work well
 
Good evening gents, I wanted to stop in and let you know I haven't abandoned this thread. I got hit with a bunch of deadlines at work on top of getting ready for a week long vacation. I won't be able to work on my bike again until the 2nd week of October. Once I start digging into it again, I will report back what I figured out. Have a great evening and rest of your week.
 
Just stumbled across this and thought I'd chime in. We found that on the 511 there was a higher probability of oil still entering the air box at sustained high RPM which was caused by oil backing up in the condenser/return bottle. I'm not sure which version you have, but the return part of the system is on it's 3rd generation. The first generation returned to the oil filler with a small AN fitting. This has worked well for years for me, but I'm on a 449 and do very little road work. The 2nd generation returned to the oil drain fitting. This helped, but did not totally alleviate the issue. Now we supply a fitting that goes to the rear screen (aka the "middle" plug) for the oil pump. This works very well as the pump pulls oil from the return line back into the dry sump. Here's a pic to better illustrate the new location. We sell the fitting by itself to upgrade easily.

3RD Gen Return.jpg

It's also crucial to make sure the hose routing to the condenser tank is correct.Hose Routing.jpg

I also have the complete install instructions if you need them, but I think these pics will do the trick.
 
I have about 7000 miles on my 11 511 and have been getting more oil out the airbox lately (with the first gen ZTR system), mostly under higher RPM's. I could not find the "3rd gen" part for the return on ZTR website, but will be getting one to see if it helps. BTW, I just tried an experiment to see how much oil was getting pushed out the condenser unit by unhooking the hose to the airbox and running it to a little catch bottle. I was surprised that it was not that much per ride (about 50 miles).....maybe 1 ounce. Looks a lot worse when it is strewn all over the motor and bike! Compounded with a leak from the valve cover area that my little test made evident. I'm tired of an oily left shoe!
 
Huskynoobee said:
Here ya go

https://ziptyracing.com/products/oil-return-fitting-3g-3rd-generation
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link to the 3rd generation version. Based upon your description, I have the 2nd generation that goes into the oil drain plug. I will have to look into getting the adapter for the 3rd generation. I will also double check my hose routing when I get home from being out of town, but I am relatively certain it is correct.

I currently have two rubber nipples in the drain holes of my air box, one with a hose routed down to the skid plate for any excess oil and another inverted so there is still air getting into the bottom side. Is it harmful to run another hose down to the skid plate from the second rubber nipple in case oil gets in there again? Will it cause problems in the event either or both hoses get clogged? I don't typically ride in or around water.
 
Running a hose to that point is fine and as you said riding in dry conditions won't present a problem.
 
I ordered the 3rd generation connector this afternoon and got some Dot4 brake fluid for the clutch. Hopefully next weekend I can get everything back together and get the bike ready for riding again.

Also, I double checked the hose routing for the overflow tank and what I have setup looks to match the picture provided. I'm hoping with the new fitting and some new drain hoses from the air box, I can finally keep oil from spilling everywhere. I will keep y'all updated on how things go.
 
Good morning y'all. Thank you for all of your input and help with getting my bike back in working order. I was finally able to get it back together yesterday. I installed the 3rd generation connector for the oil overflow into the middle port as recommended. I couldn't get the original fitting out of the drain plug hole without risk of rounding the nut so I found a cap at Napa Auto Parts that will be my new drain plug. I got some of the European formula Mobil1 0w-40 to try, I will be interested to see if I can tell a difference.

Out of the air box I installed a second grommet and rubber hose into the drain hole and ran the hose down to the underside of the bike. I also rerouted the existing hose I had previously installed in the other drain hole to a better location under the bike. I'm hoping now I won't have oil spewing over the top of the engine.

I changed out the hydraulic clutch fluid just in case, since I think I got it too hot last time.

Now I'm ready for a test ride to make sure it all works.

Huskynoobee, I do think we are neighbors. Whereabouts in Castaic are you? I'm near Parker and Old Rd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top