Small Metal pellets in the hull, 96 Sportster

[B'sSportster]

I have an oil leak in my Sportster and when cleaning up the mess so I can hunt for the leak I found a lot of metal pellets in the hull. Does anyone have any idea what this is and if I should be concerned?

 

[Lumps]

I am curious to hear what you find out. when I cleaned out the bilge in my old boat I found the remains of a exploded engine (just a few bits) but it really worried me until I figured out that one of the engines had been replaced.

Those look very uniform like they are punched out of sheet metal. let see if anyone else has seen anything like that before

 

[Seadoobuddy]

Can't remember the name but maybe the ball bearings from a piston assembly.

 

[Steelmesh]

Use a magnet to identify if it is steel or non-ferrous (aluminum).

My boat had a 2-stroke oil leak when I bought it, because the piston exploded and busted a hole in the crankcase. It was impossible to find the damage because it was at the bottom of the engine.

 

[richiebell19]

I found something similar in my spark plugs today and it looks like there was no longer a gap present. Were you leaning out by any chance?

 

[B'sSportster]

I found something similar in my spark plugs today and it looks like there was no longer a gap present. Were you leaning out by any chance?

I am not sure if I am running lean but I am having issues when I give it gas. Around mid throttle I bog down pretty bad and have to go full throttle to take off.

 

[racerxxx]

Have you rebuilt the carbs, and fuel system?

 

[2x2smoke]

how about byproduct from all the rivets used to attach the rub rail to the hull?

better outside the engine than within. If they originated from inside the motor, I doubt it would run at all having succumbed to a major catastrophe.

If you see something like this on your plugs, very bad things are happening which need to be diagnosed, stat. stick an endoscope in the plug hole or pull the carbs and look at the piston and crank webs through the intake runner.

One of my engines would pop but wouldnt start. I ran a compression test and got 150 psi. There was a tiny grain of metal on the spark plug threads. I wanted to ignore it but eventually found a piston clip had broken free and migrated throughout the bottom and top end.

 

[richiebell19]

I am not sure if I am running lean but I am having issues when I give it gas. Around mid throttle I bog down pretty bad and have to go full throttle to take off.

You could definitely be running lean. I would advise you to go have a mechanic check it out. I blew my engine shortly after making my above quote. I wish I had someone look at it instead of trying to clean myself. Costing me a pretty penny [emoji36]