Band-Aid for valve cover gasket?

[Guest]

I took my valve cover off - really for no good reason in hindsight while trying to troubleshoot why my #2 cylinder was not firing - and now I've got a pretty major leak, to the point where a drop comes out onto my pipes quite often and making a mess on my pant leg.

Next time I take the cover off I want to 1) have a new gasket and 2) have the tools ready to take a good look at the valves after at least 6500 miles.

I can order the gasket today and have it proibably by weeks end. However I have a couple important rides coming where I want to do about 500 miles more before I do this.

So I'm looking for a sealant material I can pick in the city and perhaps squirt all over and make a decent seal. The existing gasket is not torn, as far as I could tell, but very much out of shape.

Compounding the problem is I have two bolts broken off in the head by PO. One bolt was found held in by silicone. And just two two holes away towards the front center of the bike a bolt is completely missing, later found to be because of the prescense of a broken bolt in its hole in the head.

So any tips tricks, etc? Maybe you know something I could try so I don't even have to take the valve cover off? : -)

Have a great Sunday
-Bob

[Nathan Daube]

I used the red form a gasket sealant when I put my valve cover back on and it seems to be holding just fine. Im thinking you could try that. I dont see a way for you to do that without removing the valve cover again though. Make sure you get enough but not too much around the half seals at the camshafts so it doesnt leak there. As for the broken bolts, buy an EZout and hopefully you can drill the bolt and EZout the remaining piece from the head.

[LarryA_Texas]

So I'm looking for a sealant material I can pick in the city and perhaps squirt all over and make a decent seal. The existing gasket is not torn, as far as I could tell, but very much out of shape.

Compounding the problem is I have two bolts broken off in the head by PO. One bolt was found held in by silicone. And just two two holes away towards the front center of the bike a bolt is completely missing, later found to be because of the prescense of a broken bolt in its hole in the head.

So any tips tricks, etc? Maybe you know something I could try so I don't even have to take the valve cover off? : -)

Have a great Sunday
-Bob

Liquid gasket will hold it but you need to think long and hard before you use one of those products. Look at the extra material that oozes out and realize that some of it is oozing IN also. Do you really want that stuff breaking off and swimming around inside your engine.

You could loosen the valve cover and lift it slightly. Squirt a very small amount of gasket sealer into the crack and tighten it back up. That might hold it 'till you get the new gasket. Then you're going to have to get those cracked bolts out of there to really fix it.

good luck

[bwringer]

The only sealer that would be safe to use is a nonhardening sealer such as Permatex #2. We used this at a rally a couple of weeks ago, and it worked great!

Take that silicone RTV crap and throw it in the garbage quick. It's a great way to clog up oil passages. Don't get that junk anywhere near an engine you care about.

The broken bolts are a problem -- oil will leak where the cover isn't clamped, whatever you do. Is there a way to improvise some sort of clamp?

And no, there's not a way to repair a leak from the outside, or by dumping mouse milk into the oil. Although there are plenty of fraudulent products available that claim to do these things, none of them actually work.