| Author | Message | ||
     M2me |
I thought rocker box leaks were a thing of the past. My rear rockerbox with the new one piece steel gasket is leaking after 4400 miles. It looks like the gasket is buckled like it has shifted. The leak is not real bad right now but I'm going to replace it soon. I was going to have to take the top cover off anyway to install the Cure Vent plus product. Anyone else have the steel gaskets leak? Maybe I didn't torque it down properly? | ||
| Reepicheep |
M2me... before you put in the new rocker box gasket, drop the oil pump and look up into the engine to check out the drive gear. It will probably be fine, but just in case it is not, you have to pull both rocker boxes anyway when you replace the gear. You can drop the oil pump, check the gear, and put the oil pump back in in less then an hour easy. You will need a small hose clamps for the oil line, and a new oil pump gasket, as well as normal oil change consumables. Thats the first of the steel gaskets leaking. Wonder if all the torques were right... did you install them, or have a dealer do it? | ||
| M2me |
I did the work myself. It first started late last year right above the exhaust port. This is where the one bolt that you can't reach with a torque wrench is. I wondered if I didn't torque that one down tight enough. Now it is leaking a little bit on both sides, pushrod and valve. It is nowhere near as bad as it was the first time it leaked with the paper gaskets though. | ||
| M2me |
I opened it up today. There is still some black, hard stuff on the gasket surface. It's around a couple of the bolt holes and that's where it was leaking from. This same stuff was on there last year. I think the factory used some kind of gasket sealer because I scrapped a lot of it off last year. Now here's my question: How should I get this stuff off? Last year I used a razor blade to scrape off what I could but left this stuff because I was afraid if I really beared down with the razor blade I would start nicking up the gasket surface (this stuff is hard as a rock). Should I try gasket remover? Continue scraping with a razor blade? What about using some fine emery cloth? One of the areas is near the valves on the head so I don't want to go in there with a belt sander loaded with 80 grit. The weather is supposed to be turning colder here so I'm going to take my time and not putting this back together until the gasket surfaces are totally clean. This gasket held for over 4000 miles but I think if just bolt it back together I'll end up with a leak again in another 4000 miles. | ||
| Reepicheep |
M2... that is probably why it is leaking. Hit the black goo with gasket remover (which bears a striking resemblance to paint stripper, and is likely identical stuff). Mine came in a spray can, I just spray it in the lid and put it on the black goo with a toothbrush. Go somewhere and relax for 15 minutes or so, come back and scrape the loose stuff off (probably nearly all of it), and hit the remainder and repeat. It gets so soft, you could likely get it off with a plastic scraper. I used a freshly honed wood chisel, which did not put a lot of scratches in the surface. When done, I hit my metal surfaces with some 1000 grit sandpaper to make sure I have really good mating surfaces. They had a nice glow. The gasket remover makes all the difference in the world. I used Yamabond as well, mainly because I had some laying around, but doubt it makes much difference. The one thing it does is holds the gaskets in place while I assemble, which is handy. Bill | ||
| Reepicheep |
And let me stress again that this would be a REALLY good time to drop the oil pump and look up in there with a flashlight and make sure the gear is not badly worn. It is a really easy job. If you do end up replacing the oil pump drive gear, the rocker boxes will have to come off again and you will just be redoing everything. | ||
| M2me |
Thanks, Reep for the advice. I'll pick up some gasket remover tomorrow. I could tell by looking at the steel gasket that that's where it was leaking. The steel gasket even had some of the black goo on it and oil. The areas where the gasket surfaces were clean were dry on the steel gasket. No goo, no oil. I'm tempted to pull the front one and have a look at it. I'm going to be taking off the top and middle covers anyway (I'm also installing the Cure vent plus product to see how that works) and yeah I'm thinking about dropping the oil pump too. I figure I might as well do this stuff now that the weather isn't all that great. I put on 400 miles in March and am still waiting for the real spring to arrive. | ||
| Reepicheep |
You will need a gasket for the oil pump, as well as a couple oil line sized hose clamps. If you have that stuff, you can pull it, check it, and reassemble in 20 minutes. A little dental mirror helps inspection but is not necessary. When the oil pump is out, rotate the gear 90 degrees before putting it back in. I would give you a 99% probability that everything is fine, but it's only a 20 minute check. There was speculation (I did not check this) that the oil pump gear has exactly twice the number of teeth as the oil pump drive gear on the crank, and that this caused particular wear of particular teeth. I don't know if this is true for sure, buy my drive gear was definitely worn asymetrically, so I suspect it is correct. By removing, rotating 1/4 turn, you move the wear to a new place, and probably buy some time. I say 1/4 turn, because if the oil pump gear (which is the one you can get at) has 2x the teeth of the drive gear, a 90 degree turn (1/4) would cause the mating teeth of the smaller oil pump drive gear to now be 180 degrees out of phase with wear it used to be. I think. Right? If you just rotated the big gear half a turn, you would be wearing the exact same place again. Anyway, I doubt that it matters, but it falls into the category of checks where you can spend 20 minutes and about a $2 in parts. If the part fails, you are looking at between $500 and $2000 in engine damage. Even if only one in a thousand of us find the worn part and avoid the problem, the math works and we as a group are ahead. Based on the wear on my gear at 14k miles, I would say it is something that everyone should check any time they have one of the rocker boxes off. That is where most of the work and money of the repair lies. | ||
| Kenb |
Liquid Gasket 1104 Have any of you guys tried this stuff ? I first used this stuff on a Kawi 750 that I had that CONSTANTLY leaked from the camshaft cover and it definitely cured the problem. I used it on my S1 when I rebuilt the top end on the metal rocker box gasket and base gasket. Don't have enough miles on it yet to say it works but it was worth a shot. |
