Catastrophic Fuel System Failure

[RDROGUE #0128]

Has been about month since road the girl and went to start, hydro-lock.
Remove  plugs, turned her over and 5 & 6 were full of fuel.
after fuel removal I fired her up started getting brownish oil /fuel mixture leakage from several locations.
Immediately shut her off, just drained oil and it was completely contaminated with fuel.
She has been de-smoged, OEM petcock altered to manual and an inline fuel filter installed.
Never seen anything like this ever before.
Removing the carb. banks now. Any input would certainly be appreciated.

RDROGUE VRCC #126

[Ricky-D]

I would not remove the carburetor assembly.

I would replace the fuel petcock.

I would let drain a bit, carburetors 5 & 6 with the bowls removed.

I would let drain a bit from the other carburetors.

Anything more may not be required.

***

[PAVALKER]

Hopefully no damage to the hard parts.....   Sound like fuel washed down into the crankcase and overfilled the engine with an oil/fuel mixture.  Get that stuff out of there and change oil/filter after you work on the fuel system and maybe add a Danmark elec fuel shut off.

Recommend you

- Replace petcock and tank fuel screen.
- Add Danmark elec fuel shutoff (you have the room now that desmog is done).
- Remove/discard inline fuel filter.  If your screen is good (a new one would be) all will be ok.
- Drain fuel bowls.
- Change oil and filter.
- Check the tank for dirt and debris while you have the fuel drained and petcock out.
- Fuel up, add some Seafoam to clean the system a bit and try again.  Maybe start with half a tank of fuel/seafoamm.

Good luck.

[Patrick]

What did it sound like while the starter was running upon re-start ? Was it running smoothly and quietly as normal ? If so, good.
I'm no fan of the OEM petcock, even when converted to manual. They still tend to leak.
I am a big fan of Pingle.
I too would not recommend removing the carburetors just yet. I'd recommend flushing fuel, a lot of fuel, thru the carburetors, especially the ones with the stuck floats. I just flush fuel thru them using good ole gravity. John S has a good idea of using a mity-vac for this. Why not give this a try. Reinstall the sparklers and run it with a heavy dose of Sea-foam for a while and see what happens. You may have to do this a couple times, but, it beats pulling that carb bank. When starting, just TAP the start button. If it locks again, remove the sparklers and clear the cylinders. If at home, do some more flushing. If away from home, quickly install them, start it up and run it.
Keep us informed. I hate to see someone damage these monsters from a fuel lock.

[Gryphon Rider]

I'm no fan of the OEM petcock, even when converted to manual.

There is a misconception (and I'm not saying by you, Patrick) that converting the OEM petcock to only manual shutoff lessens the chance of hydrolock.  Simply not the case, unless when you remove the vacuum side, you started the habit of manually shutting of the valve when you didn't before.

[custom1]

I was just going to say the same thing. The OEM petcock is two shutoffs in a row. Why would you disable one of them and then think it is going to be more reliable? If you happen to turn it off but don't get it exactly centered so the ball seals them you have no backup to save you. That is why it was designed that way. If you are not going to rebuild the petcock back to oem specs then take it out and put in a DanMarc and a Pingle. Then when that fails in 10 years at least you won't be able to blame the OEM.

[Patrick]

I'm no fan of the OEM petcock, even when converted to manual.

There is a misconception (and I'm not saying by you, Patrick) that converting the OEM petcock to only manual shutoff lessens the chance of hydrolock.  Simply not the case, unless when you remove the vacuum side, you started the habit of manually shutting of the valve when you didn't before.

Yep, agreed. As said, they still tend to leak. I'm no fan of the petcock as I said whether its original or modified. A ball valve is not a good design. Even when your tongue is stuck in the exact correct position and the valve is set in the exact precise position, it can still leak. That valve can unknowingly leak and as long as the float valves do their jobs everything will be fine.

[RDROGUE #0128]

Thanks for the replies. I went a head and pulled the carbs, need to rejet anyway because I installed some open cans and caused a lean condition. Also last time carbs were pulled I removed the Plastic air diverter and need to put back in, carbs did not like the heat on a summer day.
Any thoughts on rebuild of oem petcock and installing the electric shut off?

[Thunderbolt]

I thought it was a good idea to rebuild the petcock.  Twice I did this.  I am now not a fan of this idea and went ahead and installed a pingle manual petcock after the second one failed, it developed a pin hole and would not hold the fuel valve open.  Make sure the needle's attached to he floats have plenty of room to move.  I had to redo one that stuck again.  Also before you install the carb bank use a temporary tank to check all the floats and make sure they are working as they should.  Saves doing it again.