Oil leak worth fixing?

I think I have a leaky head gasket. I have a slow drip down the fins onto the left side cover and keep getting drops of oil on my pants when I ride. Seems like a pretty big job and the gasket part itself costs alot of money. Does anybody know a bargain fix for this?

 

Have you made sure all the bolts are properly torqued?

 

I did take the tank off and tighten up what I could. I don't have a torque wrench to measure, but the were all almost impossible to budge, so unless they are overtight I don't know what else I could do.

 

there is a swap meet in Matrinsville on the 12th of July and there will be a guy there that has about 14 of these bikes and he will give advice and sell parts but he would rather give advice and tinker on your bike for you than sell anything

 

It might be your cam chain tensioner gasket and the oil is running around the front before dripping. I don't see it quite as far up as the head gasket; the blasted camchain tensioner gasket will drive you crazy thinking you have a more serious problem. (Don't ask me how I know.)

 

Is it possible that the leak only appears to be worse on the left side because the bike leans to the left when it is on the kickstand? Therefore it could be coming from a more central location like the cam chain tensioner.

 

Sounds like you've tried to tighten the cam cover bolts. I think bill meant re-torquing the head.....which involves removing the cam cover and using a torque wrench.

If I were you I'd get as aerosol can of degreaser and clean the engine first up. Then take note of where the leak is coming from with a clean engine. My bet is on the cam chain tensioner too.

 

Be careful. The valve cover bolts have stop collars on them, they cannot be "tightened up." They can be stripped out if you try to tighten them more.

The best way to figure this out is to use "engine cleaner" from the auto parts (I prefer the citris type, just be sure whatever you pick it says to use it on a cold motor) and contact cleaner to get the whole top end CLEAN. Then run the bike and watch for the origin.

It may take some doing. I was chasing what I thought was a base gasket issue and it turned out to be my #2 carb float bowl was loose. The leaking gas was dissolving built-up oil residue from the leaky cam chain tensioner gasket and running around the base of the cylinder.

 

sounds like I'm looking in the wrong place. I'll spend some time with it, clean up everything and try to pinpoint. I do think it is from the middle of the engine. between the middle 2 exhaust.