I recently bought an LT80 that I noticed was quite oily around the motor shrowd when I bought it. It is also hard starting. I have cleaned the carb good and the motor has 150 lbs of compression. The motor smokes much heavier than normal even for a two stroke.

I noticed oil dripping after it sets for a while after riding it -- out of the snorkle that vents down to the clutch area. So, I decided to dig into it further. When I took the shrowd off of the motor, the motor had a bunch of oil on it (and pooled around the base of case under the jug). It also had a bunch accumulated down on the right side in the fan housing. I pulled the head and jug and the piston and rings look great.

I drained the gear oil and although the specs are for 80 ml, I got closer to 180 out. Who knows how much was put in there. My question is this: If the gear oil was significantly overfilled, would it find its way through the big black tube and into the motor area? Could it be getting sucked through the motor (explaining the heavy smoking) and also accumulate around the motor shrowd, etc.? And, would this explain the hard starting in any way? Alternatively, is this an oil pump or crank seal issue? I am comfortable bypassing the oil pump but have no experience replacing crank seals. I thought it best to ask to see if anyone had experienced this in the past before I start putting it back together.

Thanks in advance.

Randy

 

Welcome to the forums Randy.
The gearbox can be overfilled (I overfill em) w/o problems. The gear oil (10-40 oil) cannot get into the motor and do what I think your explaining.
Sometimes the head nuts loosen and cause leakage at the base gasket. Did it look like that happened?
What size jets are in it? Maybe someone has changed them.
FYI: 1)to run pre-mix, you must remove the clutch cover and remove the lil black plastic piece on the end of the crankshaft that drived the pump.
2) "IF" crank seals need replaced, they simply pry out and push in. They are only a few bucks each. Of course you have to remove the clutchs and stator to replace the seals.
3) You should service the clutchs since you have no idea whether they have been gone over or not.

Other than the base gasket, I don't know how or why it has oil pooled. I'd say clean it up and run it and see if it happens again.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I could not tell if it was leaking at the base prior to popping the head off, so I had to do that. It did not look like it was leaking (and it did not appear to be after I took the head off) and I did not originally think it would read that high on compression (nearly 150 lbs) with a leak there (but I am not a mechanic). What is really puzzling me is that the oil that was pooled did not look burnt in any way. It looked more like a leak of some sort (or perhaps a silly human error).

I did go yesterday and order new gaskets, crank seals (might as well rule that out while I have it down) and new jets. I could not read the lettering on the main jet, so I just ordered a new one to rule out a jet change. I also have an FMF pipe ready to install, so I got one bigger jet size just in case.

I have browsed around here and read some of the posts on going through the clutches, so I will be tackling that as well. I don't think the clutches have been touched ever. I have a manual and I assume and hope that pulling the clutch and stator is not a big ordeal.

As you suggest, I am planning to just put it back together with new rings (piston looks great -- and I don't think it has been ran much) and see what happens.

Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Randy

 

Stock jet size is 92 (main). You can easily run a 90 main as they are jetted way fat from the factory.