Oil Leak Continued...

[esj001]

I had trouble with the valve cover leaking also----tried with a gasket and no sealant, tried with a gasket and sealant, tried with just sealant no gasket, then i remembered this stuff that we use to seal engine halves together on airplanes, we call it "grape jelly" but its Loctite 515---here are the specs and a cheap place to get it-----you can get all size tubes online for pretty cheap---just laid a bead of that with no gasket at all--worked like a charm and the thing hasn't leaked a drop since

http://www.loctite.sg/sea/content_data/93791_515EN.pdf

http://www.all-spec.com/products/51531.html

[mike_of_bbg]

You really need to figure out where this leak is coming from.

Yes, I know it can be confusing because the wind blows the oil around. But if your head and base gaskets aren't leaking, there's no point in replacing them. Degrease, power, short ride, watch - repeat as necessary.

OEM full gasket sets are still available for many of our old GSes. Go look on the "optional" parts fiche for your model. You'll know you're getting top quality gaskets. Look at discount OEM sellers like gssuzuki.com or Deland Suzuki. The two biggest makers of aftermarket gaskets for our bikes are Athena and Vesrah. Vesrah gaskets (I think that's what Z1 sells) used to enjoy a pretty good reputation, but either there were bad batches, an overall downhill drift in QC, or counterfeit gaskets that soiled their rep. I've used the Athena gaskets, and have only had trouble with the head gasket. However, Ed (nessism) thinks that's because the base gaskets are too "soft" and extrude releasing pressure from the head. It's highly recommended to go with OEM for the base gasket at least. Watch ebay for NOS gaskets and sets. I scored an OEM head gasket for $15. The base gaskets are already pretty cheap.

IIRC the 750s and up have the tach drive in the head instead of the valve cover, and real gaskets makes a nice soft reusable rubbery gasket for the valve covers which should work well (just don't use too much torque!). On the bikes with the tach drive in the valve cover they're too thick and can cause wear of the tach drive.

If you end up replacing your head and base gaskets, make sure you re-torque after a few (5 or 6) heat cycles and then again after a few thousand miles.

[Scudder]

No more oil leak. Turns out the gasket on the cam chain tensor needed replacing and the lock nut was gone. Everything is great, with no leaking. Thank.

Scudder