Oil leak at #4

[Bauer]

Hey all.
Ive recently been doing some major updates and modifications on my bike. Getting it into good running order and chaning a few things to my likings. As you may have seen in my many posts about it. I changed to superbike bars in mid january. I was having problems with the cables causing the motor to go WFO in turns. Cold ND starts and wide open throttle DO NOT go good together.
One of my most recent updates was a new valve cover gasket. The previous owner tore the old gasket at the front right corner of #4. I paid little attention to it through last summer as it did not leak, or at least leak very much. (greasy oil appearance, but no fresh stuff ever appeared) As winter came and started to wind away, I decided it was time to get some stuff done. (paint, bars etc.) I was all but finished, the valve gasket the last on my list of things to do. I took the old gasket out, stuck in too many places to list, accidentally took a small slice out of the exhaust cam end seal while scraping gasket remains off the head. All in all it went semi well. Put the new gasket in, forgot to fill in my slice on the end seal with gasket maker silicone (in a hurry of course) torqued the valve cover bolts, though im still unsure as to why, and started the bike. Let the bike warm up well as I knew the gasket would shrink and bolts would require retorquing. Gasket seemed to shrink...and shrink.... and shrink haha. must have retorqued 10 times. Finally all appeared to seal, except that exhaust cam end seal. Realized my mistake, said a few cuss words, and went on with life.

Today, I decided I was going to tear the bike back apart and fix that cut in the seal. I did so and all went well without a problem till tonight. I went out after letting the slicone cure for the required time, and started the bike. After a 15 minute warm up (idleing in the shop no thanks to 20 degree temps + windchill I started seeing light clouds of smoke coming off #4. After spending way too much time to locate an oil leak. I still am coming up negative. The oil leak appears to be coming out from behind the #4 header collar, but it never leaked there before, and I cant see any leakage from the valve cover and all bolts are tight and torqued.

This is where the question comes into play. Ive looked at this from several points.

1. WFO starts with a cold motor may have caused ring damage, BUT this would only cause blow by, thus burning oil and smoke out the exhaust, but I have no smoke at the exhaust exits, only burning off the header collar and head cooling fins.

2. Valve cover not tight, but it has been torqued and retorqued, and I cant seem to see where it is leaking.

with #3 brings that I may have oil leaking past the threads on the right most forward corner of the valve cover. This would cause oil to leak down the head, onto the header collar, and thus burn off. There appears to be oil at the base of the threads, BUT no fresh oil from that point to the collar.

Im lost, anybody have any ideas for me. Judging by what I saw tonight, it looks like the oil leak is coming from where the header attaches to the exhaust port on the head. Is this possible? Gasket failure, etc.???

Thanks for the help, and sorry for the long post.

[trbig]

Did you silicone both sides of your gasket? I only used Threebond liquid gasket on my half-moons, and none on the valve cover gasket... figured I would have to have it back off before too long to check valve clearances... less cleanup.
I had something of a similar incident recently with the cam adjuster. I put a new gasket on it and it kept leaking past the bolt threads and dripping off the bolt. Gasket failure. In that case, I just removed the gasket, used the ThreeBond lightly.... no more leaks.
I know it's a pain, and those gaskets are about 8 bucks, but since that's really all you did and it wasn't doing it before... I'm gonna call gasket failure on this one.... or a small gap in your silicone between the cams and the threads on one of your bolts. You might try another one without silicone, and only use it (Silicone) if it leaks again. That way you may be able to remove it whole at a later time if needed.

Tod

[Snow]

Not really on subject, but I like using Pam original cooking spray on all of my gaskets. Usually just on the side that touches the engine. You can reuse the gaskets a few times and don't have to scrape material off the motor.

[red bandit]

do you see oil dripping or running on to the exhaust? have you ever run the engine inside? if not, it might be just the old oil burning off. you'd be surprised how much smoke comes from 1 drop of oil. just a thought.

[Bauer]

Threebond is what I used, I only used it on the half moons as that was the only place I had a leak before taking it apart yesterday. After the threebond and retorquing of the valve cover, I no longer have any leakage on or around the valve cover itself. only possibilities like I say are the bolts. I dont want to seal the gasket down as I will have to valve maintenance after this summer (valve clearances and such) But it looks like it may be my only option.

Where do you find your gaskets for 8$, I paid over 15 for mine here in ND.

Thanks.

[Bauer]

Bandit, there does appear to be fresh droplets, but im not positive on that.

I think when I get home tonight, im going to place some silicone in the ends of the threads for the bolts, let it cure and fire the bike up. If it stops the oil leak problem. Ill go into more detail with fixing it from under the cover.

[randy]

Bauer,

If your gasket is fresh, it shouldn't leak even without sealer. You may have some warpage? When you have the cover off, lay it on a sheet of glass to find the warp.

New gaskets, I just glue (Permatex, Yamabond, Bazooka, whatever) to the cover and go dry on the engine. That way, if I want to remove the cover for maintenance the gasket won't shred, it stays stuck to the cover.

Also important - when you torque bolts the threads need to be clean to get th eproper torque. Possible you've got junk in the threads in the head? Or rust? Might want to run a 6mm tap in those holes and maybe a 6mm die on the bolts.

[Bauer]

Randy,
Cover is not warped, there are no leaks at all around the gasket itself. Like I said, it appears to be in the bolt sleeves. The bolts were clean when they went back into the bike.

Last night I filled the #4 bolt hole I referenced above in with some silicone from the bottom side. I will fire the bike up and see if it has stopped the leak.

Thanks