Oil leaking from head

xristos · Sep 26, 2006

My 04 fs650 is leaking oil from the the front left corner of the head, only noticed it a few days ago. Is this fixed with a retensioning of the head bolts or is something else the problem, gasket maybe?

Taffy, you mentioned this problem on earlier models, can you shed some light on the cause? Cheers

logjump · Sep 27, 2006

I don't recall ever hearing of oil leaking from the head, but I suppose it is possible. Make sure it is not something really simple like a valve inspection cover, breather hose leak or possibly a rocker cover leak. The breather hose can be over tightened causing the hose clamp to cut through the rubber. Sometimes oil can also leak through the threads of the alloy breather fitting that screws into the rocker cover which is an easy fix.

I would clean the existing oil then run the bike to be positive of where the oil is coming from, (if you haven't already done so).

Log

xristos · Sep 27, 2006

thanks mate, I've cleaned it and run it for a while and its definately coming from the left front corner of the head where the gasket is. its not pouring a lot of oil out but its enough to easily be noticed at a glance. I thought of retensioning the head but was waiting to see if anyone else has experienced the same problem.

xristos · Sep 28, 2006

well Ifound out the hard way...........went for a ride yesterday, had a sudden loss of power and plenty of white smoke from the exhaust. Stopped to take a look at the engine and there was lots of oil blowing out from the first join of the exhaust manifold. I'm gonna pull it apart this afternoon and see the extent of the damage, hopefully just the head gasket.

LeFrog · Sep 29, 2006

If it is the cylinder cover, there is no gasket except for liquid gasket. I have a leak there and I managed to reduce it greatly to the point where it's not damageable by being somewhat liberal on the liquid gasket.

Threebond 1211.

Also retorqued the bolts. Be sure to not lose the little o-ring.

It happens when the top cylinder warps and is not totally properly adjusted. Taffy's doc specifies that it can be fixed by grinding the base against a sheet of fine sand paper.

Now if the leak is at the base of the cylinder, that's something else.

xristos · Sep 29, 2006

thanks, my cylinder cover seems to be ok. The initial leak was from the left front corner of the base of the cylinder head. I did some searching and read that what happened yesterday with all the white smoke might be the reed valve stuck open or broken. I'm opening it up later tonight to check it out. will keep you posted.

Taffy · Sep 30, 2006

the leak i'm on about is the one between the rocker cover and the head and NOT the head to block joint. that's a new one on me!

regards

taffy

xristos · Sep 30, 2006

oh ok, my mistake mate. I still dont know why it was leaking from the head, the head bolts torque and gasket were fine.

Anyway, the smoke was caused by a broken piston oil ring. It was lucky in a way, in the process of pulling the engine apart i noticed the cam chain had a cracked/chipped link and probably would have broken completely very soon.

hopefully the Cyprus dealer has a new piston and rings in stock and i can start the rebuild early next week.

Taffy · Oct 11, 2006

get the new '06 camchain that is made by D.I.D.

good luck

taffy

LeFrog · Oct 11, 2006

I suspect that part of the sippage comes from overheating too.

When the bike is running hard but is still cool, with lots of airflow, it does not leak as far as I am concerned.

But after a section of tight trail with lots of clutching and overrevving so as not to stall, I realize that's when it's happening.

It's not super dramatic, I lose about 10 to 20 ml of oil, it's just messy and a bad representation of the brand.

Can anyone confirm that's how it could happen as far as I am concerned?

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