'87 FLH Engine Issues

[lostboy004]

Greetings. Buddy of mine was riding his '87 FLH a couple days ago, and the engine just stalled out and dumped some oil out of the oil pump breather. She wouldn't restart, so he trailered it to me to take a look at it. Symptoms sounded weird to me, so I checked a few things. What bothered me most is that she has 0psi compression on the back cylinder and only about 5psi on the front. All 4 pushrods seem to be fine after popping the covers, so I don't think its a cam issue. Hopefully his oil pump didn't die and he didn't realize it till it was too late. Engine is turning over, but doesn't sound 'right'. No sign of metal or grit in the oil. Any suggestions or things I can check before we start tearing it down? Hopefully the Harley Gods will smile down on us...

 

[tourbox]

With that kind of compression I would bite the bullet and pull the heads.
tourbox

 

[fin_676]

Dumping oil out of the crank case breather could indicate that the that the expanding gasses from the burn of fuel/air mix in the cylinders has pushed passed the piston rings and pressurised the crank case expelling all the oil from there
With very low compression figures and the expelled oil I would suspect piston rings/pistons/cylinders

Brian

 

[Jack Klarich]

Sounds like you could have blown head gaskets, with low compression you need to pull the heads and have a look