I have a 99 Ironman with roughly 100k and mine has had the same problem for about the last 20k. I found out mine was leaking oil due to a cracked rear main seal, which only costs about 150 bucks to replace. Instead I just put a quart of oil in every once and a while as it slowly leaked. Well I took to long the last time and ran it dry while driving in town, so like a good little engine it seized up, and now my VX is sitting in the back yard gaining dust.

I have been looking for an engine but their to expensive, so im going to just take it somewhere and have them rebuild it, probably for a couple thousand, there is no way I could do it myself.

So anyways mine was the cracked rear main seal.