[9mmDeath]

This morning I experienced a major oil leak that appears to have come from the oil filter gasket. I'm curious to know if anyone has experienced this.

2004 Kawasaki ZZR600 with 3,800 miles

Signs and Symptoms:
- Last oil and filter change about 400 miles ago
- Cruising along about 65-70mph
- I see white smoke in my rearview mirrors
- It seemed to be coming from the mufflers
- Temperature gauge reading fine
- Engine running fine
- This goes on for about 2 miles, and then the oil light comes on
- An old man on the side of the road is waving his arms at me to stop (I believe in angels now, but that’s for another post)
- Immediate stop into a gas station off the highway
- When I stop oil is gushing out and is all over the lower parts of the engine, my feet, the mufflers

I noticed that the gasket on the oil filter about 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock is kind of bulging out. So I got my wife to shuttle a filter and oil to me where I did a filter change and refill of the oil on the spot.

I've ruled out the following:
- No holes or punctures in the actual casing of the filter
- No previous gasket on the engine preventing a good seal

The folks at the station let me use their pressure steamer to get most of the oil off the brakes and tires and cowlings. I ran the bike for about 5 minutes sitting still to let it burn off the residual oil, which there was a lot and at one point I thought it was going to catch fire and burn.

Anyway, after I got most of the oil off and let it idle, I ran it home about 4 miles down the road. I didn't see any obvious leaking, certainly not the gushing I saw before. Again, temp was fine on the return trip and the oil light remained off. Oh, and there is a tick that wasn't there before - but that's another story that I'm quite frankly scared to think about. Maybe it will just go away...

I use the following filter and oil:
- Purolator PureOne
- Rotella T Synthetic 5w-40

I'm wondering:
- If perhaps the gasket could've gone bad?
- Could I be using the wrong combo of oil and filter?
- Could something else in the engine forced the oil back out the filter and the gasket became the weak link?
- Could the crank case not be ventilating properly?

I searched to see if anyone else had this problem and didn't see anything obvious.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Doug