Stupid mistake...

So I did something dumb. I noticed what appeared to be a small amount of oil on the bottom left side of the carburetors. Could have a valve seal issue? So I looked at the sight glass on the crankcase and I noticed the oil level was below the minimum fill level. So I added oil until it appeared to be at the appropriate level. Hit the starter and heard a glugging sound. I let off the starter before the engine turned over and noticed oil draining on the ground from the breather hose. I looked at the air filter and noticed oil had come up into the air box. The oil did not make it onto the air filter itself. I assume I just added too much oil?   But Im confused as to why the sight glass showed the level so low?

I plan on doing a full oil change tomorrow and cleaning out the air box. Anything I need to inspect before I try to start her back up? Should I be worried about any kind of damages?

Sidestand or centerstand when measured?

Any of that fine whiskey consumed prior to evaluating oil level? 

Just returned from a ride and oil not drained back to crankcase?

Or..... hmmm..

Perhaps petcock left on for period of time (assuming you removed vacuum OEM and are running a manual petcock and/or your oem vacuum unit is working incorrectly), and the sight glass was showing gasoline in crankcase level window not oil.. it would look clear... 

Gas  density is less than oil...meaning gas will float on top of oil.

I doubt you did damage if you got off the magic start button quickly as stated.

Mine did the same thing with OEM petcock, vacuum switch removed. It actually started and ran for a bit but sounded horrible. Stopped, freaked out,  but all turned out ok. Switched to Pingle, never looked back.

When you drain oil tomorrow, do so into a clean container. Smell for gas. If you don't smell any gas in the  catch container, toss a lit match to be sure. 
Just kidding, don't do that! 

Keep us posted.




 

It was on the center stand. And I think the problem with my evaluation was probably that I hadn't had any whiskey yet. Rectifying that right now. But, The bike had been sitting overnight so it was cold. I had ridden last night for a while and left the petcock on prime. I just took a sniff of the oil that drained from the breather hose. It does have a faint gasoline smell. Attached is the petcok I went with from z1300.de. It has on res and pri. I considered a pingle but I wasn't crazy about modifying the tank to fit it, purist I guess. 

I'll do another sniff test when I change the oil tomorrow and follow up. Might go pingle after all. 

I wouldn't be changing out the petcock. I can see the need to "prime" the carbs if the bike has been sitting for a long time in a hot place. You're not going to try and start it until you have gas in the carbs so during the time the petcock is on prime, you're not going to try and start the bike. That being said mistakenly leaving it on prime is a habit thing . Set the petcock to prime and leave it on for 20 seconds then turn the petcock back to "On" and continue with your startup.
Switching to a manual petcock would now mean you have to remember to turn off the petcock every time you stop the bike and that's a lot of wear and tear on the Nitrile seal in the petcock. I had a Pingle petcock on my H2 Kawasaki and after 3 warranty replacements of that Nitrile seal, Pingle told me to get lost.
Stick it out with the vacuum petcock is my 2 cents.
KB

from 5 years ago and for what it's worth. 

www.kz1300.com/index.php/engines/1358-oi...query?start=12#20405

I changed the oil yesterday. After I was done I got side tracked and didn’t have a chance to start it back up. I just gave it a shot and she won’t turn over. I checked the sight glass and the oil level is super low again. Not sure what is going on here. It’s definitely not leaking out anywhere.