MattM wrote: Hi All,
I bought '81 gpz 1100 a few years ago and its been sitting, I've done a number bike projects in the mean time and now have dug this out to do a restomod. Its got mikuni carbs and really runs great, I had drained the float bowls and tank when I put it up and put fuel in it and it started up and runs great, so that's great. I steam cleaned the engine and then ran it and the cam cover gaskets leak as it looks like is somewhat expected, but also the head gasket leaks pretty good, oil is weeping down the engine and if you look close you can see tiny bubbles of oil coming from the head gasket. Is this common? Should I just replace the gasket, or is this an indicator of something bigger?
thanks, Matt
If you torque it and it still leaks, which I'm fairly certain it will, buy new gaskets and 0 rings and fix it properly. Get the head resurfaced while it's off and put valve seals in it. Would be foolish not to. As far as Cometic vs OEM, I'd go with Cometic. Just make sure you to torque the head again after the first full heat cycle and do it with the engine stone cold.
Oil leaking J motors were common issues when they were relatively new. 34 years of time passing hasn't magically cured them