Cam end plug replacment

1980 xj650 maxim

I've done it again... I did the valves and realized a little too late that I bought the wrong valvecover gasket, so I cut the donuts off of it and felpro'd the valvecover back together. I hot rodded her too hard on the 405 and the plug came loose along with the oil. I red RTV'd it back together, put in two liters of oil and rode her home. Here we are.

1. I just bought some new donuts, can I continue using felpro, or do I need to buy the official gasket?

2. Do I just red RTV the donut in place and the gasket on top of it?

 

correct parts always make the job easier

 

You can always try the RTV method again but I would bet that you will forget (I would anyway) and blow it back out and repeat your recent mis-adventure. Me? I would probably do the RTV thing and go gently while waiting for the new gasket to arrive and immediately (theoretically anyway) replace the stop gap gasket with the right one.

 

I looked up the yam part numbers, and the oem gasket doesnt come with plugs on it. Do I need to rtv them together?

 

a smear of rtv where the moons go into the head a little smear across the top where it meets the gasket is ok too

this

you do not have donuts on a 1980 cam cover.

wiith the paper style gasket I would use the red permetex gasket spray on 1 side of gasket to "glue it inplace. NOT THE COPPER BASED SPRAY it is not compatible to aluminim
me i would glue it to cover. it should seal its self to the head when you follow the torque sequence for the cover bolts and just use a smear of rtv on the moons where it meets the gasket (and where moons meets the head)
remember you are going to be removing the cover again to check valve clearances. if you glue it to both sides you may damage the gasket on next cover removal

when you say felpro did you make your own cover gasket out of a sheet of gasket material?

 

My bad on the donuts, I meant the half moons. I did cut it out of a sheet of felpro.

 

if you ink up the cover and press it on to the felpro you may get a good ink impression

or on a copier copy the cover then use an iron and the copy ink will transfer to gasket
ink side to gasket

 

Thanks for the tips. I will try to reuse the felpro that I already cut and installed. I bought a gasket from old bike barn pn 4H7-11193-10/00 , but from the reviews, it looks like that wont be coming anytime soon. I went and bought the same thing from the fleabay, but that still has not shipped, supposed to arrive tuesday.

 

we have a supplying vendor on site His name is Chacal his company is xj4ever.com
his delivery time from purchase to delivery is great. you tell him your bike and get the correct parts
click his logo upper right of page always the correct part and he stands behind his products and will supply the knowledge to install them.

think of him for future purchases