Head Gasket leak 1997 fe501e

Kilpatrick · Jun 11, 2017

I bought a 1997 Fe 501 e Husaberg that has brown oil indicating a head gasket leak so I replaced it with a new one and after I got it tightened down and put back together I noticed it was leaking to the outside again. ahh annoying! What should I do? buy a new gasket and try again? The only thing I can think of that went wrong is i over tightened the head bolts a little. Maybe 5-10 Newtons

bushmechanic · Jun 11, 2017

try again but check or have someone check flatness of head and cylinder mating surfaces

can check it yourself with some wet/dry paper #400 (aust grit number) on a thick peice of glass or a flat surface, do some figure 8 movements and take a look.

overtightening by small amount doesnt matter if the threads are still ok, check those too.

other possiblity is that the head is fine and the water enters oil somewhere else but usually with a head gasket leak its the combustion pressure that escapes, everything is fine untill you run the engine then the combustion gasses push all the water out the radiator overflow

Khristi · Jun 26, 2017

I have a head gasket leak too. The first head gasket I misaligned a little (no dowel pins on this model) so I thought that was why when it started to leak coolant between the head and cylinder. It got into the oil through the cam chain port I guess and made a new quart of fully synthetic total milkshake. No compression leak at all.

I replaced the gasket and second time I were careful with the alignment and cross torqueing in three steps up to 60 Nm. There seem to be no leak to the oil this time as it still looks nice but there's an ever so small poodle of coolant on the floor after a day or two in the garage and you can see that the split between the head and cylinder is a little wet.

Will replace once more as soon as I get some other things sorted out but what can I do except checking for flatness? Any specific head gaskets to avoid?

Taffy · Jun 27, 2017

the old heads pulled down to 46N/m but the hot tip was to go to 46LB/ft instead which is another 10%.

the trouble is, the wall of the cylinder starts to collapse unless you use thicker washers. so be careful.

as said, be clean!, use a sheet of P600 with gunk on it and a block of plained baton wood and go around the rim.

regards

Taffy

Rainerio · Jun 27, 2017

I had a 1976 Husky 125 no head gasket. What You did was put lapping compound on the two surfaces and moved back and forth clean it up and you were good to go. This was the factory way. Also you might see high spots on the two surfaces. Not saying that's all you should do but it's worth trying (install a good gasket also)

Khristi · Jun 28, 2017

Just to not confuse anyone 46 ft lbs is approx to 62 Nm

From 44 Nm (service manual) to 62 Nm is almost a 50 % increase.

A standard M10 bolt 8.8 has a recommended torque of 47 Nm which gives approx 70% usage of the specified minimum yield stress. Going up to 62 Nm would mean passing into plasticity (permanent elongation) of the bolt. But then these bolt may be of a much higher grade since most head bolts I've seen have been 10.9 (65 Nm) or 12.9 (79 Nm).

But I will go over the head and cylinder mating surfaces with a fine sand paper on a flat surface before I fit a new gasket. But for now, since no water seem to get in the oil, I'll just add a teaspoon or two of coolant when needed. If I can get the bike to start.

Taffy · Jun 29, 2017

i'm not going to look right now but I thought it was just a 10% conversion rate either way. i guess you'll put me right though on that one!

TAFFY

Khristi · Jun 29, 2017

Why can't we all go metric..?

Taffy · Jun 30, 2017

"go metric"?

is that a bit like 'going naked'?

Taffy

Khristi · Jun 30, 2017

Guess that depends...

Head Gasket leak 1997 fe501e

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