Good gasket sealer?

[harvdog42]

Hello,

The rubber cam caps on the right side of my engine are leaking oil. Does anybody know of a good fix for this?

Jim

[strom]

Get the loctite silicone for sealing engines... the black one. You will have to take the valve cover off, replace the gasket or use the silicone all round. Clean the surfaces well with something that degreases engines, like trichlorethilene or similar. Watch that you DO NOT get any in the engine. Use a cloth soaked with the stuff.

When everything is clean and neat, spread the silicone on both sides with your finger. Thinly... just so it covers the whole surface. Wait 10 min (no more), then put the thing back together. Its wise to wait another day for it to dry properly, before getting any oil in there.

Happened to me to and it worked.

LP

[harvdog42]

OK Thanks

Jim

[xssiveone]

Those half moon plugs were still readily available a while back. Pretty sure Dennis Kirk still lists them in case the silicone doesn't do the job.

[sixtysix]

I always clean any gasket surface with laquer thinner first and then use Permatex Ultra Black silicone. You will never have a leak on anything if you do this. Must be the sensor safe ultra black, the only silcone I use (well sometimes the high temp stuff, just cause the copper color looks cool (but not on bikes))

[strom]

Originally posted by sixtysix
I always clean any gasket surface with laquer thinner first and then use Permatex Ultra Black silicone. You will never have a leak on anything if you do this. Must be the sensor safe ultra black, the only silcone I use (well sometimes the high temp stuff, just cause the copper color looks cool (but not on bikes))

The loctite has the high temp stuff in black... it is a tad more expencive, but its black.

LP

[fusionking]

I'm pretty if you check,Ultra-Black is the high temp black. Garry

[sixtysix]

Originally posted by fusionking
I'm pretty if you check,Ultra-Black is the high temp black. Garry

I know it is high temp but I still have half a tube of the copper stuff in thr drawer that needs to be used up , anyway I don't care how pretty you are!! I still use the copper on automotive stuff till it's gone.

[Geezer]

Never use silicone seal where it will contact oil or gas. Use Yamabond instead. Silicone sealer will break down in oil, it takes a while but eventually it will be through out your oil system plugging things up.

Parts and more has the cam end plugs (when they're in stock anyway.)

Yamabond 4 and 5 are available at all Yamaha dealerships and is with out a doubt the best sealers you can buy.

Yamabond #5 would be best for this but #4 would work too. Odds are the plugs are hard as a rock and need to be replaced. The end plugs are cheap and I always buy an extra set when I order them. Sooner or later I'll need them.

Geezer

[fusionking]

Man what a typo! I'm not pretty! I'm pretty sure. Anyway , hey geezer if you check it out permatex has had a line of silicone products out now for several years that you can literally replace gaskets with in a hot oil enviroment. They don't break down , Period. Used them for years in my automotive machine shop and staked my name on them! Good stuff ! Try them you'll love 'em, I wouldn't lie to a fellow XS'r . Even if I'm not pretty, ha! If you find one check out a permatex catalog sometime and you can bet if the Japs got it we do too when it comes to shortcuts and the like. You wouldn't believe all the stuff they make nowadays. In fact just yesterday I was in my wifes parts store just browsing and noticed they had ON THE SHELF a line of silicone I think it was called Motoseal just for motorcycles, snowmobiles, jetskies and the like, in colors no less! That's one of the perks about being in the parts business....... you get to check out all the new stuff. Garry

[Geezer]

I'm used to typos. I found out I was dyslexic when I was 30. You can't imagine the relief it was to finally know what the problem was. Anywho, I got into the computers (and later the computer biz) because I needed a spell checker. That was back in the PC XT days. Remember when 8 MHz was fast? ;o)

Back to sealers, in all the years I’ve turned wrenches, I’ve never found anything better than Yamabond. I've tried other stuff but I keep going back to Yamabond. I've won over may a convert too. I know one Porsche mechanic that after I turned him on to it, won't use anything else.

Geezer

Originally posted by fusionking
Man what a typo! I'm not pretty! I'm pretty sure. Anyway , hey geezer if you check it out permatex has had a line of silicone products out now for several years that you can literally replace gaskets with in a hot oil enviroment. They don't break down , Period. Used them for years in my automotive machine shop and staked my name on them! Good stuff ! Try them you'll love 'em, I wouldn't lie to a fellow XS'r . Even if I'm not pretty, ha! If you find one check out a permatex catalog sometime and you can bet if the Japs got it we do too when it comes to shortcuts and the like. You wouldn't believe all the stuff they make nowadays. In fact just yesterday I was in my wifes parts store just browsing and noticed they had ON THE SHELF a line of silicone I think it was called Motoseal just for motorcycles, snowmobiles, jetskies and the like, in colors no less! That's one of the perks about being in the parts business....... you get to check out all the new stuff. Garry

[sixtysix]

I have two types of Yamahabond in the drawer as well (4 and 5?) but only use it if the manual calls out for it or I want something that is basically invisible on aluminum. I think those two tubes will last me the rest of my life unless they dry up.

[Geezer]

Try them for other stuff. You'll be amazed at how good they are. I think that if the British bike industry had had Yamabond, they wouldn't have leaked so much oil.

Geezer

Originally posted by sixtysix
I have two types of Yamahabond in the drawer as well (4 and 5?) but only use it if the manual calls out for it or I want something that is basically invisible on aluminum. I think those two tubes will last me the rest of my life unless they dry up.

[fusionking]

I think I would rather trust a Chevy mechanic or some type of brand that was well known as a terrible oil leaker and then had been totally cured. A piece of bent up sheet metal is a lot harder to seal than 2 machined surfaces. Also today's bike sized engines in 1 ton cars see a lot more heat and stress than a air cooled bike should. I doen't doubt that the YAMAHA stuff is a super line of products but i really doubt they intended for them to be used in the jerry-rigging money pinching and poor parts availability scenerios we get into these days! That is what Permatex and others like them are all about! Good ole AMERICAN thinking.If I had my bike apart it would get YAMABOND first. If i developed a problem I would move on to BETTER more MODERN sealers developed to handle problem areas such as these. I think Strom and 66 was trying to say how to "get by" on the old stuff. Not the right way but sometimes it can be the best way. Garry

[Snow]

I replaced my leaky half-moons with Yamaha OEM from bikebandit, I had tried using the partsnmore ones but I just couldnt get the damn things to fit - also, it'd be safest if you got a new cam cover gasket, but I managed to cheat that my using a razor to slice my plugs out from under the gasket.