I'm totally new to BMW bikes and I'm looking for some help. I just bought a 1985 K100 with 49,000 miles on it and its not in the best shape. So i started taking the bike apart to clean it and work certain parts. I took the muffler off to clean it and clean other parts of the bike and i noticed a rather large amount of oil sitting in the exhaust pipe, its the pipe coming from the rearmost cylinder. I know these bikes leak oil due to the engines orientation but this amount seems excessive since it's dripping on the floor from the pipe. I'm just looking for help and any is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.
That isn't at all unusual if the valves are at overlap then it runs into the exhaust and that is when you smoke the house out.  You just smile and deny that there is any smoke and by the time the EPA gets there it has stopped.

So its not a problem i should worry about? It just seems like a lot of oil to only be coming out of one cylinder and I would think it would just drain all the oil eventually.

If the oil is anything over the mark on the sight glass and the bike leaning over as they usually do then a lot of oil will get in there. I drained about 100mls of oil from my K100 when I first got it and was putting a new engine into it.
Much smoke was the result even after draining what I could.
There are some on the forum who routinely use the centre stand because of the smoke at start up.  The early K100s were very bad for it even my K1100 did it a few days ago and they have the "good" rings that are supposed to prevent it.
The Ks are almost bullet proof but do have some very annoying quirks.

Alright thank you very much. If that is how it works that's fine with me. I was just concerned and thought i  might have a major problem but I'm glad to know i shouldn't be worried.

Welcome to the forum jnash

Your side stand could be out of shape causing the bike to lean over too far and if this is for long periods you may get a build up.

As Rick says, oil level could be the issue and most likely. imho I don't believe oild seeping to the heads should be excessive.

When I bought mine back in April I found it had 890 ml too much oil in the sump . The PO said that it smoked quite a bit after being on the side stand. I don't normally use my side stand unless necessary.

The sight glass presents a problem inthat if there's just a little too much oil you don't know what's in there qty wise. Its common for Knewbies to over fill because the manual says 3.5 lit and I've found it only takes a little over 3.0 lit. Drain the oil and add 2.5 lit then gradually till you get a level on the sight glass.

Then go for a fang to get it hot and burn some of that oil out  
Any excuse to ride her hard. She likes it.

Cheers

I will defiantly change the oil and make sure i put the right amount in. It shouldn't be the side stand because its been on the center stand for the past couple days and still continued to leak. So I'm hoping it just has too much oil in it.

can you see a level in the sight glass?

You don't necessarily need to change the oil unless it needs it. Just drain and refill.

I cant see a level in the sight glass so i guess its way over filled. Off topic but do you happen to know what the numbers on the engine block are for? They are to the left of the sight glass where the engine meets up with the transmission.

If it's the number that runs vertical it is the engine number

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, is that supposed to match to the vin in any way?

No it won't match. Some of the older airheads matched but none since the Ks hit the streets.

I saw the numbers didn't match and i got a little concerned but thank you for clearing that up.

jnash56 wrote:I cant see a level in the sight glass so i guess its way over filled. ...

Would be interesting to hear back exactly how much extra was in there ... just for the record against those symptoms you described.

Cheers

So i drained the oil and it came out to be about 5.5 liters, so I'm assuming that was my problem. I also had fun (actually terrible) time learning how to replace the oil filter.

When filling the oil it is very easy to go past the correct level. It seems to come to the bottom of the sight glass and then 100ml more and it's past it. I over filled the K75 a few weeks ago at an oil change.

jnash56 wrote:So i drained the oil and it came out to be about 5.5 liters, so I'm assuming that was my problem. I also had fun (actually terrible) time learning how to replace the oil filter.

Holy cr*p!!
That's 2 litres tooooo much. No wonder it was oozing out your headers. Its a worider it wasn't leaking out some of the breathers.

I found that once I got the right oil level the exhaust didn't stink so much on startup. It was a sickly oily smell bit like  a diesel.

I've read on other forums that over filling is such a problem that many think their sight glass has gone opaque and they replace them. I spoke to a retired BMW m/c mechanic about the problem and he said that in his whole career he never came across a sight glass he couldn't get a level on. His advice was to drain it and fill gradually.

Re: oil filter
Hope you didn't over tighten. Important to tighten by hand untill it just seats then wrench it just half a turn.

You'll find lots of info for Knovice K owners on the portal page. There's suposed to be a manual d/l there but I could never find it but you can d/l one from http://service.tanga-moteurs.ro/data/BMW__k100%20&%20k75%20Haynes%20Manual.pdf

Use the forum search also.

Cheers

Welcome jnash56, a bit of oil in the pipe on and off is good for the K, just like us fellas.
Have fun, come down under mate.
Rick