I am new at this and have a question. Looked at a 04 Rancher with 200 miles on it. Seem to run fine but when I looked in the air box I saw oil. Is this normal or is there a problem.

Thanks

 

Has the machine been transported in other than a flat position?

The other thing I'd check is the oil level. The machine needs to idle for 3-4 minutes, then sit for like 2.

When you check the oil, set the dipstick on the threads of the hole w/o screwing it in.

Overfilled can cause it to puke oil out of the breather. Also, it isn't unusual for an engine to have significant blow-by and oil fumes up the breather while it is breaking in.

 

How much oil was noticed? Sometimes the foam filter will be over soaked with oil and it will have the tendancy to drip into the air box or make it appear oily.

 

I'll second that. Some people like to over oil the foam filter. If it doesn't look like half a quart and more like a light coat in the bottom, I'd suspect this as well.

 

Often it will be drain down off the air filter. It can also puke some oil back out the crankcase breather. If it persists, I would suspect that the rings are bad and it is passing compression into the crankcase.

 

I suppose the thing to do, then would be to clean the air filter and don't over oil it, clean out the air box, make sure the engine oil level is correct, and see if it comes back...

 

Another thing to check is to make sure that the carb float valve hasnt leaked gas into the airbox and then crankcase - causing the oil level to rise - causing the blow of oil back through the breather and into the airbox --

 

What kind of filter oil are you using? Some drain down worse than others. Plain engine oil is to thin, and will drain down and/or get sucked into the intake and leave you dry, so stay away from that.

I have found that the "supertacky" oils are so gooey, that they pack up quickly when they get a coat of dirt on them.

After years of trying different things, I settled on UNI's filter oil. It is moderately thick so it won't get sucked out of the filter, yet is thick enough to catch the dirt. It will drain down however to some extent, so I place my oiled up fiters in a plastic bag with some paper towels in the bottom for a few days, to let the excess drain off.

 

Thanks, some of the stuff that has been talked about I don't understand just yet. Again I am as new to this as a newborn. I am looking at this machine to buy. I did take a syringe and sucked out the oil instead of the drain tube. There was about 1oz in the bottom. I then stated it up and found what I think is the crank case line, has a small square piece of foam which was not oil soaked, anyway reved it up a few times and did not see any oil from it. I looked at the oil level and it is at the top of the second line on stick. I do not know what oil was used. So that is all I know at this time.
Thanks again I need all the help I can get.