Oil leak from head gaskets

On the 77 650, there are four little humps (about the size of half a quarter) on the seam of the head and the timing belt/cam covers.

The leading edge of the front one is leaking oil onto the head. On both sides!

I know I could order a set online, but I just painted the engine, and the hot oil is lifting the fresh cured paint.

The silicon would be right now.
The gasket will need shipping time.

I would be happy to use the silicon, to keep the oil from ruining more of the paint.

The bike is a must use daily driver.

Should I not use silicon sealant?

Q

P.S. What is the correct spelling of gasket

Post edited by: Qdude, at: 2007/08/01 23:10

From what I gather from reading your description, your cam plugs are leaking. The cylinder head gets line bore drilled after being cast in order to drill the cam caps and the holes on the ends of the head result. These are sealed using the rubber cam plugs. When you install them, you are supposed to use some sort of adhesive sealer. Liquid gasket maker works. I use a blue silicon GE automotive sealer and this works fairly well... it is common for the plugs to drool a little oil. You can usually remove leaking cam plugs after removing your valve cover, clean them so new adhesive will stick to them and clean the surface they sit in and re-adhere them. If you use a Permatex silicon sealer, use one that holds up to oil like the Permatex Copper liquid gasket maker.

george is right, if you do go the silicon route, clean the head surface with carb cleaner to remove all the oil, apply a even coat and let it sit for about 15-20 min, then install the cleaned plugs, gasket and valve cover

I've been tossing this around in my head for quite some time now.
If the only reason the cam plugs are needed is to fill in the area from the initial machining of the cylinder head, why not just permenantely fill in that area (JB Weld or something similar) and be done with it?
I figure if you're going to remove the cams for whatever reason (valve adj, cam swap, etc) you're going to have the cam chain off of the cam gears, so there should be plenty of room to remove them at an angle.
Or am I missing another reason those recesses are needed? :huh:

If they are leaking they need to be replaced because the rubber is hard as a rock from years of heat. Part # is 92066-1111. I would think most Kawasaki dealers would still stock these.
The 1977 model KZ650 was the first model that used these particular cam end plugs and they were noticably different than later years. If your plugs bow out in the center, these are original from 1977 and definately need to be replaced. If they are basically flat, then they have been replaced by the updated 1978-up plugs that were much better.

If you JB Weld the rubber cam end plugs, and they harden and start to deteriorate, I suspect you would soon figure out why the JB Weld isn't the hot ticket. If you used some of the aftermarket cam end plugs made of aluminum, I can't think of any reason not to JB Weld them in place except I can't ever get them to fit right. Most of the time you have to file them on top to make them flush.

Thanks for the heads up guys.

The painted engine looks great btw.

Q

wiredgeorge wrote:

If you JB Weld the rubber cam end plugs, and they harden and start to deteriorate, I suspect you would soon figure out why the JB Weld isn't the hot ticket. If you used some of the aftermarket cam end plugs made of aluminum, I can't think of any reason not to JB Weld them in place except I can't ever get them to fit right. Most of the time you have to file them on top to make them flush.

I think my question may have come across wrong.
I wasn't suggesting using JB Weld to SEAL the cam plugs into the head, but rather filling that cavity WITH the JB Weld INSTEAD of the cam plugs. More of a permanent type thing.

Yeh or Ney? :huh: