please tell me my oil leak can be solved this easily

[sam78gs750]

Hello all,
I'm new to this site and am so glad i found it. I have what seems to be a common problem: an oil leak that I'm not sure where it's coming from. I thought it might be the valve cover gasket or the head gasket, so i searched through the many threads already here on those topics and found a lot of great info that was very helpful. I went out to the garage to clean the engine to determine exactly where the leak was coming from so i didn't rip my engine apart for nothing. when I looked at the engine closely, I realized that a missing cover i lost on the road and only noticed a few weeks ago that I thought was cosmetic might actually be the source of the problem. the part i'm talking about is listed as the CYLINDER HEAD COVER SIDE CAP on Suzuki's website and is #4 on the blowup I'm attaching. it's one of the round chrome covers held on by 2 bolts on the side of the valve cover. (there are 4 of them) Underneath it is a rubber half circle grommet. My question to everyone is this: could this missing cover cause an oil leak?
my bike's a 78 gs750 running with 30k on it. I haven't done anything to the bike other than routine maintenance, the PO rebuilt the carbs and as far as I know, did no other major work...

[rustybronco]

My question to everyone is this: could this missing cover cause an oil leak?

Missing the chrome cover will not cause an oil leak.

a leaking half moon end seal or a leaking cam cover gasket will. if you replace the cam cover gasket, go ahead and replace all four half moon end seals .

[Larry D]

The cover itself won't cause a leak...it's just a chrome cover. The half moon rubber cam end seal, could be the problem though. Remove the valve cover, pull the half moon, clean the area and half moon throughly, replace the half moon with a light coat of sealant. May as well do them all while you're there.

Oil leaks are sometimes difficult to trace as the oil blows around and moves everywhere.

[Nessism]

As the others have already stated, that missing cover won’t cause an oil leak.

BTW, I have a spare chrome plated cover you can have for the cost of shipping. Send me a PM if interested.

Oh, and make sure you check the valve adjustment if you haven't already. Many people skip this critical detail until it's too late.

[rustybronco]

Oh, and make sure you check the valve adjustment if you haven't already. Many people skip this critical detail until it's too late.

I knew I was forgetting something...

[sam78gs750]

good to know... I just thought that if the bolt holes went all the way through the cover that it might be leaking from there. there is oil in the bolt holes, but yeah, oil blow all over the place so that doesn't necessarily mean anything...

[chef1366]

Did anyone mention that those are only cosmetic?

[Nicholaschase29]

The chrome cover is purely cosmetic.

[1_v8_merc]

Here's some vital information guys.

I think you guys forgot to mention, the chrome cap is PURELY cosmetic!

----

But don't worry you're not alone, my GS650 has oil leaks in the SAME spot.
I wasn't sure if the oil was drug all over there from another leak, or what, so I changed the oil in the bike, sure enough....the oil coming out of the Half-Moon was fresh!
Plus I got various leaks along the valve top area....I just keep putting it off until summer time.

Consider yourself lucky that you're only missing ONE chrome cap....Im missing THREE!

I'll buy some eventually.

[DanTheMan]

But I thought those chrome covers were an important piece integral to holding the engine together............

[Tom MLC]

If some bozo of a PO drilled out a snapped screw...and drilled it all the way through...

Sorry, just being a Murphy.

Anyway, I concur with the group here. Probably the half moons are your problem. Replace 'em. And put 'em in backwards. Yes, backwards. So they can't pop out.

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. sam78gs750,

You might also want to check the tach cable seal, where the tach cable goes into the head, as this is a common area for leakage too. The cam chain tensioner can leak too. The fixes are easy. You can find them on Mr. bwringer's site. There's a link on my site (link below). Let me properly say "Howdy!" ....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

Yep, purely cosmetic.

Replace the half-moons and the gasket AFTER adjusting the valves.

Adjust the valves AFTER reading the last part of my sig.

And, when you put the chrome caps back in, use some blue Loc-Tite to keep the screws in place.

.

[sam78gs750]

Finally took the bike to a self car wash place today and cleaned all the crap off my engine... as i was drying everything off I noticed my tach cable was very loose.

But I thought those chrome covers were an important piece integral to holding the engine together............

I know, I know... fng right?
I said in my original post i thought that cover was only cosmetic, that's why i didn't think much of it when i noticed it missing. then it occured to me that the screw holes might go all the way through the valve cover and was hoping that was the problem instead of something more serious. turns out it wasn't that missing cover that was the cause of my problem, but the fix was just as easy... I tightened the tach cable and I'm good to go. also noticed a small bit of seepage from the valve cover gasket, but I had planned on replacing that anyway when I adjust my valves. (didn't realize how crucial that was, and I wasn't gonna bother... thanks guys.)
Thanks for the extra cover Ed! Much appreciated. and Steve, thanks for the valve spreadsheet. Also, Basscliff your site is awesome! so much great info on there.