Engine service questions 1994 FE600

The pilot yet is clean but the passage up to the barrel is harder to judge. I filled the hole with WD40 and blew it out with compressed air so I think the passage is clear (enough?).

I don't know if the fuel additives are different here in Sweden but I have barely ever seen old fuel build up crud. And I have worked on quite a few outboards, mopeds and chainsaws. One time was really bad though when salt water had gotten into the fuel and left over winter. Had to scrap all three carbs that time. Drifting out of subject...

Yes I can see through and the hole seems round and clear. I don't have any jet gauges but I can tell that the hole is bigger than the choke jet hole. Choke jet is 45 and idle jet is 52 so that should be OK.

Slide is 50 and opening is way less than 6-6.5 mm. But I'm not sure that even the idle screw all the way in will open the slide that much. I'll try and see.

Leccy boot is Taffy slang for electric starter, right? So I don't need that extra jet inside the pilot jet?

At last... choke on, idle screw almost all the way in, fuel screw about 3.5 turns out. After a few exhaust puffs it just started and I was actually quite surprised. It was a pretty mellow kick with the right leg standing next to the bike.

Let it run for a minute or so on choke and when disengaged the choke I had to turn the idle screw out a couple of turns to lower the idle. I could also raise the rpm by turning the fuel screw in. But since it was about 12 at night i didn't want to bring down my wifes or neighbours fury so I'll continue tomorrow.

What do I use to seal the exhaust pipes to the head and to the muffler? High temp silicone? No gasket specified in the parts manual.

And there's a tiny leak of cooling water around the head gasket. Gasket is new and all bolts are torqued to spec. Should I have used a gasket glue here or will the gasket swell after a few heat cycles?

Struggle continues... checked the oil which was new full synthetic 10w50 and it was gray just after two short test runs. Looks like the gearoil from an outboard lower gear contaminated with water. And I have a tiny water leak around the head gasket so...

But please help me out with some thoughts here please. How can the water get in the oil? Since there's only splash lubing of the valve train there are no oil ports in the head/head gasket. The seals around the camshaft water pump are all new and theres no water or oil coming out that little hole besides the water pump housing. Could I possibly have water entering the cylinder and then being pushed down through the rings and into the case? I measured the cylinder, piston and rings and all were according to spec with good margins.

Or could it possibly be fuel contaminating the oil? From what I have seen before that usually would not get the oil greyish and in those cases there's usually a gasoline smell from the oil. And the only way that could happen is through the valve stem guides/seals right? But since the valves shut tight and the clearance is good I really cant see this as an option.

Guess the head is coming of again and a new head gasket is my first measure. Should I use gasket glue around the water jacket ports this time?

I'll also drill out the rocker shaft support holes in the valve cover and fabricate some bushings for it since those were a bit oval, especially on the exhaust side. Anyone done this before. Do you think bearing bronze would do as material?

Thought things through a bit an of course one or two of the channels in the head gasket is for the oil return from the head, right. So it's probably where the cooling water has found it's way through.