free website stats program Tapping noise/high oil pressure briefly | Harley Davidson Forums

Tapping noise/high oil pressure briefly

Mavagrand

Mavagrand

Senior Member
just got back from vacation. didn't get to ride a lot, we got caught in the storm that hit the NE. Anyway, as I pulled into the auto train depot in lorton virginia last night, I noticed my engine was tapping loudly. Don't know what valves sound like but this was a very distinct tapping that was present at idle and appeared throughout the RPM range. I was literally loading the bike at the time and did not have time to explore the problem. I did not check the oil pressure.

This morning after the bike was unloaded, I checked the oil level, it was right on the money for a cold check. Fired the bike up and there was no tapping but the oil pressure was now reading high. I'd say it was between the 30 and the 60 on the oil pressure gauge at throttle and at idle it would settle down to about normal (32). It stayed that way for about 20 minutes and then began functioning properly. I believe the train car was air conditioned because both my bike and Richards was cold and had condensation on them.

I have installed an ultra cool oil cooler about 1k ago but, other than that, the bike is stock with a stage 1.

I've heard of certain bikes having issues with their cam shoes wearing and tearing up the oil pump....my bike is an 08 and has the automatic cam shoes so I am confused as to what could be going on. Is it possible something else could have jammed the plunger on the oil relief spring/?
 
I'd say ride it around home a little, and keep an ear on it. When you were loading the bike, you were in strange (slightly stressful) surroundings and the noise could have been amplified by the train car or your situation.
SO, aside from the rain, how was the trip? :)
 
thanx for your response breeze. You know what they say, "a bad day on the motorcycle...." :) Truthfully, we got to visit Mount Vernon which was nice and got to see a little of DC. ON the way to Baltimore, the skies opened up and TD Lee began pummelling the NE. That was on Monday afternoon. The next day we rode to a friends house in Elkton MD, got rained on all the way there. The rain stayed for the next three days. We sat in the house and watched the weather report. I feel terrible for those people, some lost everything during this storm. The weather report said it was a 40 year record for rainfall. I believe it. there was constant rain for the three full days we were there.
Things began to clear up on Friday so we rode to Bird in Hand PA so the wife could do a little shopping. From there we began heading to Virginia, stopping for the night in Aberdeen. Loaded up on the auto train and here we aer.
Like I said, I've had better vacations but I am not complaining, at least I have a place to call home.
 
H D oil filter? Hope the pump isn't sticking and bypassing
 
Yea, Jack, always use HD Oil filter. There's a little over 3k on this oil and I'm getting ready to change it. I'll cut the filter opena nd see if there is anything in there.
 
My 08 did the same thing off and on for about the first 20k then stopped all together. Seemed to do it worse when the weather was cool to cold.
 
Wouldn't think you would hear tapping with the oil pressures you've mentioned... I believe your '08 has hydraulic lifters, maybe a lifter going bad. Since you had a brief time of higher pressure, You could have something floating around in the oil & occasionally restricting a passage causing the higher spurt in pressure. If possible when you do your next oil change, do the complete change to flush out the system & as you mentioned do a post mortum on the oil filter to see what it's catching.
 
I'm thinking what Harry said or also even if the lifter is still good sometimes engine crud can break loose and clog the oil hole on a hydraulic lifter. How long has it been since an oil change.

I had this happen on my truck when it would get down to the fill mark. I added a quart and it went away and then came back. I changed the oil and it went away and didn't come back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top