Oil separator, major problem!

[YamahaTim]

I just got my sled back, it had leaked 2 quarts of oil out of the oil vent tube, within two seconds. The motor shut down by it self.
So my dealer went through everything leak test, compression test. And everything was great. The oil canister had water in it. And that caused the oil to pass right through the vent tube. This happens on all Vipers, whether turbo or not. It might be something we will have to take a look at. I have over 3000 miles and it just happened to me. On the stock vipers it's down behind the exhaust. It's a black canister with three fittings on it. If you are tinkering around and see this take the hose clams off and take the canister out and see if there is water in there and empty it and clean it out with a real good cleaner. They used break cleaner and cleaned it out really well and let it sit out. Oil and water does not make a pretty mixture so will need a good cleaner.
After cleaning it was fine. Runs great! Just a heads up. You don't want to be like me and on a back pack trip and have two quarts leak out in two seconds. Talk with your dealer and see what they will do for you. But just preventative maintenance. The will I'm sure find a fix for it. But right now maybe something to look at. It's a OIL SEPERATOR.

 

[rough rider]

looks like they call that a oil seperator #35 on parts diagram, 2 hoses come off the top and 1 on bottom ?

 

[FAMILYMAN]

Did it freeze? Is it a ball valve and water lifted it? Outgoing line get pinched. Any more details how it all works.

You are talking about the one on belt cover from turbo relocate?

 

[YamahaTim]

looks like they call that a oil seperator #35 on parts diagram, 2 hoses come off the top and 1 on bottom ?

Ya that's what's it's called...

 

[YamahaTim]

Did it freeze? Is it a ball valve and water lifted it? Outgoing line get pinched. Any more details how it all works.

You are talking about the one on belt cover from turbo relocate?

Yes that's what I'm talking about. And yes mine froze while on a trip, but it sat inside the shop for two days and they ran it and it was still spitting out oil. So they took a look at the oil separator and tipped it on it's side after taking it off. As he tipped it water was coming out. So it was not letting the oil through, instead it came out of the oil separator. After taking the water out and cleaning it, problem solved, for now. I suppose we will have to check this every once in a while to make sure it's not full of water.

 

[YamahaTim]

Hey just helping, don't ignore this! It will hurt your feelings if it happens to you!

 

[YamahaTim]

Maybe now that people are getting more miles this might start becoming a issue.

 

[DeerHuntr]

Should get a sticky and maybe some pictures so people know what to look for.

 

[stingray719]

I started a thread in the Phazer section about a 3 dollar roll over valve I put in my supercharged Phazer. A guy put one in his stock Phazer and got water in it and it froze and spit out all the oil. Unfortunatly he thought the oil light on was an error and restarted it and pinned the throttle and blew his engine up. Point is, if it has a breather you can have issues.....and DON'T ignore the oil light.

 

[Turtle]

Why does the Viper have this oil separator canister? This hasn't been a problem on any other 4-strokes ... at least I've never heard about it, or ever heard about an oil separator on Yamaha's other sleds.

 

[wot-75]

Why does the Viper have this oil separator canister? This hasn't been a problem on any other 4-strokes ... at least I've never heard about it, or ever heard about an oil separator on Yamaha's other sleds.

From:
http://global.yamaha-motor.com/business ... ature_003/

"All Yamaha 4-stroke snowmobile models adopt a dry sump type lubrication system for the sake of compactness, and inherently the dry sump system only requires a very small amount of oil in the crankcase. In short, the dry sump is a system that only applies oil at the points where it is necessary. Unlike a wet sump system, a dry sump system does not have an oil reservoir in the oil pan that is constantly churned by the crankshaft, and that itself helps reduce pumping loss. There is a large amount of research that has been conducted to find ways to develop on this advantage in the automotive industry, especially for race machines like those in F1, high-class sports cars and motorcycles as well. Yamaha engineers have also developed designs to reduce pumping loss by means of dry sump systems in the 2-cylinder and 3-cylinder engines of its snowmobiles.
These 2- and 3-cylinder engines incorporate a "breather box" to separate out the gaseous element in the lubricating oil. The lubricating oil is gathered by a large-capacity scavenge pump (for oil collection) along with the residual blow-by gas it contains and sent to the oil tank, where the gaseous element is separated out by means of a centrifugal separator. From there, the air (gas) is sent to the air cleaner and the oil is circulated under pressure by means of the feed pump. This minimizes the flow of excess oil in the crankcase and reduces its air pressure to as low as -40 kPa (for the 3-cylinder engine) at the point of max power output. This greatly reduces pumping loss and helps create an excellent feeling of power development up through the rpm range."

 

[stingray719]

Why does the Viper have this oil separator canister? This hasn't been a problem on any other 4-strokes ... at least I've never heard about it, or ever heard about an oil separator on Yamaha's other sleds.

I have noticed I can roll our Viper over and not lose any oil where the Nytro or Phazer would be an oil bath. I applaud the new design even if it has some shortcomings.

 

[westinbrad]

Also had the oil sperator problem...Thanks YamahaTim and others for responding to my other post.

Feel that this is an important one. TTT

 

[Yamadog]

Why does the Viper have this oil separator canister? This hasn't been a problem on any other 4-strokes ... at least I've never heard about it, or ever heard about an oil separator on Yamaha's other sleds.

I have noticed I can roll our Viper over and not lose any oil where the Nytro or Phazer would be an oil bath. I applaud the new design even if it has some shortcomings.

I try to keep my sled on the skis and if the old ones rolled it was a mess but this situation can cause you to lose 1 to 2 quarts before it shuts down and like tim said when on a trip there is no way to remedy it. You need to pull the box and clean it and then add more oil not an option on the trail.

Not to mention mine did it it at 100 mph and dumped a qt on the turbo and muffler which was this close to a total burn down - which at this point would have been welcomed!

 

[Turtle]

Ah ... Thanks for the education.