rocker cover gasket?

here's another one for you to ponder?

ok so your rocker cover leaks and you have used them all: 3-bond etc etc. you nearly stopped it all! alas there is always a misttttttttt !!!!

you try the glass sheet and wet 'n dry and for a while it's better.....

what you should do now is either:

a) skim it again and rebore the cam bearing housing
or
b) more sealant etc

what about:

c) a home made gasket of say .25mm or 10 thou?

i used to make all my own gaskets for my duke. i made them all except the sidecover one.

i'll explain how you do it.

take either the rocker or the head but because the head doesn't have a defined gasket area we'll take the rocker cover. place so you can see the jointing face and lay on something so it won't move. lay a sheet of gasket paper over it with about 1" overhanging the outside. any less and the gasket will tip in. use a toffee hammer and tap, tap, tap around ALL the surfaces so you can see the outline of the rocker cover. when you get to a bolt hole etc you need a big ball bearing. lay it on the hole so as it stays and then again tap with the hammer. use the round end - the ball - quite a lot especially on the concave curves. remove the paper nd use the hollow punches for all the holes and then get a really nifty little pair of scissors and cut the INSIDE out first. then cut the outside. check the fit on the head and fit the rocker cover using a pen to mark off any excess and then prune it. next, smear with copper grease (if you are me). you may need a larger 'O' ring but the fatter the 'O' ring the smaller the hole in the middle so i think (IMHO) that the gasket should be enough for 30PSI of oil.

no gasket at the bearing area. i suspect that a .010" gasket will defo hold the cam bearings solid as long as you have been, like i say, "facing" the cover in the past!

so. anyone done this and what were the results?

regards

Taffy

In the past when I needed a thin gasket, I would grease up the surface of whatever engine cover I was using. Then I'd set it down on a sheet of newsprint. I'd push it down hard and the grease would secure the newsprint. Turn the cover over and carefully trim with a knife. Worked well back in the days of riding AJS/Matchless bikes (had 6 of them at one time).

Why do they use sealant and not a gasket in the first place? It sure is time consuming to pick, wipe and razor blade off the old silicone every time you want to pull the cover off.

husabutt said:

Why do they use sealant and not a gasket in the first place? It sure is time consuming to pick, wipe and razor blade off the old silicone every time you want to pull the cover off.

Click to expand...

i know that was a rhetorical question eric. the bearing is the problem - no gaurantee of the correct pressure and also think of the massive loadings through the cover when the valves are opening?

like the technique Neil, very cool and one i never heard of before!

did you agree with my technique anyone?

is this another dividend of softer cam and valve springs? can we now talk about gaskets over 3-bond?

question still remains: HAS ANYONE EVER TRIED IT????

regards

Taffy