oil coming out periodically where header meets engine??

[81GS850]

hello everyone so on my recently purchased 81 gs850 i find its periodically having oil appear on one of the headers and found its coming out where they connect at block,whats likely causing this and if im on a budget should I keep the bike or get rid of it, it seems to run pretty great but obviously something isn't right my dad says it could be something minor his friend says to sell it now so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DanTheMan]

Can you post a picture of this oil leak? It could be the tach cable drive seal (very likely), a leaking spot on the cam cover gasket (also suspect), or possibly the spot where the head has an o-ring and it's got a small bolt holding that part to the block. None of these things are hyper expensive and really no reason to get rid of the bike.

[mrbill5491]

My leak was from the tach cable housing going into the valve cover (took 4 years to finally to get it to seal back up right) it would spit out just enough oil to drip down on the block and around the header exhaust, not to mention at hiway speeds, it blow up under my gas tank, what a mess that was till I fixed it.

[matt1100]

Used to have a similar issue on my #4 exhaust flange bolt hole. Not sure if I got caried away when I drilled and helicoiled it or not but I do not believe oil should be able to get there period. I believe it was from my 30 year old valve seals leaking. Has not showed back up since I changed them when rebuilding the motor. I used to have a copper washer jam nutted against the head, lil tricky but possible with the aftermarket header I have. It forced the oil into the pipe. It worked for a few months.

Good Luck