Interesting. My '88 has the same oddity.
Right valve cover off, very little oil.
Left valve cover off, it's Niagara falls.
It runs okay though - so perhaps this is just a design 'feature.'
(Or not being on level ground.)

Todd
'88 Westy

Scott W. wrote:

>here is the story. been trying to figure out a cold
>idle problem for almost a year. finally gave up and
>took it into a shop. they did some tests, checked
>compression, came back with very bad
>numbers-100,150,100,20...1,2,3,4....told me they would
>recommend rebuilding the engine. seeing as how the
>engine uses no oil between changes and makes good
>power in my oppinion, decided to play with the valves
>a bit and double check the numbers.
> after valve adj. checked compression.
>140,140,120,120. what? anyway, the right side only
>leaked a few drops of oil when i poped the cover, the
>left side,on the other hand, dumped about half a quart
>or more oil when i popped it off. is it normal to have
>that much oil in there, and if not, what do we think
>would cause that?
> so after putting the covers back on, fired her up to
>see if i screwed up, this being my first valve
>adjustment. it ran like it is supposed to for the
>first time in a year......i could hardly believe it,
>although we will see tomorrow morning if it is fixed
>or just teasing me...it is still doing a little
>backfiring, not at the exaust, although i can feel the
>miss with my hand by the tailpipe, sounds muffled, not
>like a shotgun or anything...any ideas as to what is
>causing the miss/backfire? or what causes them in
>general i suppose. thanks
>
>=====
>Scott Wilson
>85 GL Westfalia
>
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