WTH... geez its a small oil leak and he wants to machine his engine head and cover???

To add fuel to the fire:

Need to fix a leak? You've got choices!

1. Thicker gasket or use a sealent
2. Increase the pressure the bolts are applying to the cover (more torque)
3. Flatter surfaces

Firstly, the cover and the heads are already machined, the casting is pretty much irrelvant for this discussion. I was chatting with a friend of mine who used to be a mechanic for 20 years and I was complaining that I absolutely hate fixing leaky transmission pans on my vehicles how even after following the procedures absolutely perfectly i'd still get some of them leaking after. He said "did you check the pan with a straight edge and correct it?" ...huh?

Yeah, the covers can and will warp, he would check them on a straight edge, and with a rubber mallet fix the pan before reinstalling it with a new gasket (and gasket maker if he wasn't confident with the pan), never had a customer come back.

#2, if you increase the torque on the bolts too much you WILL pull the threads out, so don't do it... if you really must do it, save yourself the headaches, drill, retap and use Heli-Coil inserts (with locktite on the coils), they can withstand several times more torque than the aluminium threads.

TWO washers...not one.AND...some residual seepage is going to occur over a week or so.So if it doesn't stop completely within a week...you snug those bolts a teensy bit tighter...that's all.You will find the right spot...and it will seal.Saves goin with that gasket and all that..it really does.Just a minor quirk...that's really all it is...it doesn't really harm anything...long as it's not doing like Rook's was previously.The two washers buffer the possibility of overtightening that bolt...All the guys I read about using two washers.....theirs stopped...completely.(on other forums as well)...in this deal...the bolt never actually hits bottom...which is good.And the shoulder part...it doesn't end up getting stressed.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 1/15/2013 @ 1:17 PM *

Rook; I agree, the guy's fix is way over the top. Just found it interesting. By the way, mechanic is still on vacation. Looks like the other thread answered it though.

leakyleaky

* Last updated by: alg8er on 1/17/2013 @ 1:31 AM *

Grn14; It wasn't just the gasket they updated. They also updated the ring-o under the bolt.

92055 RING-O
92055-0143 (replaces 92055-1616)

11061 GASKET,HEAD COVER
11061-0738 (replaces 11061-0195)

Looks like the other thread answered it though.

what I got from that thread is there is a new head cover gasket and new spark plug gaskets. Nothing mentioned about ring-os but we know those have a new part # too. At this point, I believe the screws are the same as always but I'll prolly order a new set anyway.

Bike BAndit has the screws at $2.71 a piece. The $4#^&* ring-os are $5 each! Spark Plug gaskets are $8.76 each....OMG!
Starts to make the $40 head cover gasket look not so bad.

Cheapest place was Ron Ayers Motorsports. They beat Cheap Cycle Parts and Bike Bandit by a few bucks on the cover gasket, ringos and plug well gaskets. The '11-spec cover gasket is a little more than the older #, but still a bit less than the other guys. Got 2 sets of everything for $155 shipped. For one set, it would be $70+$15 for shipping, so $85 to your door.

Thanks for the tip, D. I'm gonna need those parts too.

"I'm gonna need those parts too"....Hagrid...is your NEW bike seeping now?God I hope not.First...shitty transmissions,then meter bracket bolts coming out,then blown engines...now THIS?.Dude...we DID do the right thing here didn't we?

Cancel red alert! I'm planning a valve lash check since I'm going to be in the area performing other maintenance.

I was going to say... I haven't heard that for 2010 and later model!

15,000 mile REPORT

I was still needing to add oil for two years after doing the washer fix shown in this tutorial. The need to add oil has become less frequent over this period and now in year three, I am ready to remove the head cover bolts again so that concludes the test. In this, the third year, I have not noticed any change in the oil level although it has only been in the bike for a few hundred miles.

The ringos look as though they are compressed more than they should be.

RIGHT AFTER WASHER WAS INSTALLED, PRETTY NORMAL LOOKING SHAPE
]

TWO YEARS LATER, RINGO EXPANDS AND PROTRUDES SHARPLY AT BOTTOM. DEFORMED BUT LEAK IS MUCH REDUCED

NEW RING-O, NO WASHER, NEW HEAD COVER GASKET AND SPARK PLUG GASKETS--PERFECT SEAL AS OF 2017

I have no picture of the front of the engine but what I see is just a slight film of oil which has accumulated dust just below the front of the head cover. It extends between the region of the left head cover bolts and the middle head cover bolts. This stands to reason. The middle bolts are situated closer to the right bolts than the left (see the pic in step 5 of this tutorial). The middle bolts are not centered so there is more pressure being exerted on the right which has sealed the gasket better. However, I don't consider the slight film that has developed over the last year to be objectionable compared to how it was before the washer fix. It does not even run down as far as the exhaust manifold. It would be a simple yearly maintenance task to clean this each year. I'd say the washer fix was a big improvement but not a total cure. I do not feel comfortable torqueing the bolts tighter. Possibly damaging threads in the head would not be worth trying that. We've been over that topic in this thread and opinions differ.

Next, I will be replacing the sparkplug gaskets and the ringos and head cover gasket with the updated parts. Hopefully that will stop the seep 100%.

* Last updated by: Rook on 5/9/2017 @ 4:38 PM *

Updated.

Yes, replacing the head cover gasket, ringos and spark plug well gaskets stopped the leak. The bike still uses a little oil between changes but it's not leaking and as far as I know, it's not burning in the engine.

"ringo's"...LMAO!!

The ring-os (that's what they call them)

Ringos....Ring-O's. Can't forget the -.

DONE AGAIN

Adding an extra washer,, solved my leak,, 22,xxx mi since,, actually scraped rubber off old sealing washers and stacked on top of new.. New gasket also

There's a new approach! Why throw away a good worn out ring-o when you can scrape the rubber off and use as a washer!! I think the leak was probably stopped by the new gasket and ring-os. The washer part of a ring-o doesn't seem like it would be thick enough to add much compression. Glad you got er stopped though!