Vesrah Gasket Set Failure

[posplayr]

So that's the trick ... the bike must be upside down when installing these!

Regards,

That is why the low G environment is required.

[handyjoe]

Some feedback on my progress so far.

The 850's now done 200 kms (5 heat cycles) so it's just had a re-torque. Got around a 1/4 turn extra from the initial torque at 30 psi. I was dismayed that the 2 studs adjacent to the cam chain tunnel on #2 pot, weren't as tight as the rest. I seem to remember that I used an angle drive adaptor on them because of poor access due to wiring looms etc in that region. This is obviously a trap for young players (and old ones too). Even though the angle was minimal, there was sufficient resistance at the joint to give a false reading at the stud. I remedied this at re-torque by discarding the adapter and sliding the drive piece further out of the torque wrench so that the head of the wrench just cleared the breather cap.

In summary, these MLS gaskets supposedly don't need re-torquing, but I'm not convinced. IMO, some of the give was in the base gasket, and some in the head gasket.
No sign of any oil leaks though, at this stage!!

All gaskets will experience relaxation. Any joint, with either MLS, graphite, or otherwise, will experience some form of load loss due to thermal cycling. MLS retains bolt load better than composite, but you're not going to have perfect load retention.

Any chance someone could put up pictures of the Cometic MLS, specifically the corners with/out the oil seals? I haven't taken off my head yet, so I really have no idea what you guys are talking about.

[posplayr]

3rd pic down shows one of those wonderful MLS beauties. Notice the nice flatness as we removed the head after thre faild attempts to retorque (2.5 ft-lbs increments with calibrated wrench).

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=999230&postcount=97

[49er]

All gaskets will experience relaxation. Any joint, with either MLS, graphite, or otherwise, will experience some form of load loss due to thermal cycling. MLS retains bolt load better than composite, but you're not going to have perfect load retention.

Any chance someone could put up pictures of the Cometic MLS, specifically the corners with/out the oil seals? I haven't taken off my head yet, so I really have no idea what you guys are talking about.

I've linked some pics of used Vesrah and MLS gaskets from my 850. You will notice that my old MLS gasket is still perfectly flat. The "bad experiences" that both Chef and Posplayr have had with MLS gaskets, are on their 16 valve motors. Your 550 is a 8 valve so should be similar to the 850.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/49er_photos/P1000361.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/49er_photos/P1000366.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309/49er_photos/P1000364.jpg

Looking at the pics Posplayr has shown, it appears that his gasket oil ways aren't small enough for the holes that surround the corner studs. The OEM gaskets have rubber o-rings in this area. The 8 valve MLS gaskets have the oil way holes aligning perfectly with the bores on the head and cylinders for each corner stud. The Vesrah head gaskets have separate rubber o rings that fit into the corner stud holes.

You really don't need to be living "down under", or on the moon to make these things work.

[DanTheMan]

My Vesrah gasket set came with o-rings that didn't fit properly and wouldn't allow the head to sit flat on the gasket surface (the retainer around the o-rings was larger than the hole in the gasket). I have a complete o-ring assortment where I found two suitable o-rings without the retainer ring to install. The right side worked fine, the left side has seepage problems. Next head gasket I buy will be OEM Suzuki.

[posplayr]

Next head gasket I buy will be OEM Suzuki.

We should be so lucky; with an 1166 kit the OEM gasket bore opening are too small (1166cc 75mm v.s. Stock 72mm).

Maybe Katman will come along and tell the story he told me. He worked directly with a Cometic Engineer to find a solution to his head gasket issues. After supplying more than 1 special order gasket the engineer finally conceeded that they (Cometic) could not solve the problem (tooling issues). I'm pretty sure we are talking MLS gaskets here.

[49er]

Wouldn't the stock 1150 gasket be a viable option? Their bores are 74 mm and usually gaskets are manufactured slightly larger around the bore than the actual bore size.

I haven't seen an 1150 gasket yet, so I'm just speculating at this point!! I know that this is the case with the 8 valve engines.

[posplayr]

Wouldn't the stock 1150 gasket be a viable option? Their bores are 74 mm and usually gaskets are manufactured slightly larger around the bore than the actual bore size.

I haven't seen an 1150 gasket yet, so I'm just speculating at this point!! I know that this is the case with the 8 valve engines.

The 1150 gasket bore hole is rather "square"ish, and so it exceeds the 75mm diameter for most of the 1166 piston, but at the flats it protrudes into the combustion chamber and would need trimming. Ray does this mod with sharp snips.

The unmodified 1150 OEM gasket would probaly be fine for the 1133cc +2mm pistons.

[49er]

The 1150 gasket bore hole is rather "square"ish, and so it exceeds the 75mm diameter for most of the 1166 piston, but at the flats it protrudes into the combustion chamber and would need trimming. Ray does this mod with sharp snips.

The unmodified 1150 OEM gasket would probaly be fine for the 1133cc +2mm pistons.

So what gasket did you use then?

[posplayr]

So what gasket did you use then?

Old style Cometic, composite sprayed with a little Copper Coat; retorque at 50 miles and at 4000 miles no issues not a drop of oil as far as I can tell.

The base gasket was never changed despite the three MLS retorques and the head removal for the composite gasket.