Oil leak from valve cover - valve adjustments

Z1Driver wrote: I have to agree if some goof ball told me my valve cover gasket was leaking because the valve tolerances were off, I would never step inside that shop again. Period. Like already stated, valves have nothing to do with valve cover gaskets. If the shop did the work, they need to fix the leak. But with the answer you received I would run far far away from the idiot.

The guy would either have to be an utter fool to say that or be completely dishonest and looking to screw you over by claiming to do unnecessary work - either way give him a wide berth.

My recently acquired KZ1000 had the tiniest of leaks at the valve cover when I bought it, the engine had been apart for a big bore kit less than a 1,000 miles earlier. I checked the bolts and most were barely more than finger tight. I tightened them correctly and no sign of a leak since. I'm not 100% familiar with the KZ750, but a lot of leaks occur round the end plugs used where the cams are through bored, the rubber shrinks with age and is no longer compressed adequately between the valve cover and the head. When you say they put gasket sealer on the ends, are you meaning where these end plugs are? it's quite common to use a bit of gasket sealer there to take up the gap left by shrinkage. I would first check every thing is torqued down correctly on the valve cover, then if it still leaks go from there. If they used a new gasket when the engine work was done. it may just be a little loose.

Z1Driver wrote: I have to agree if some goof ball told me my valve cover gasket was leaking because the valve tolerances were off, I would never step inside that shop again. Period. Like already stated, valves have nothing to do with valve cover gaskets. If the shop did the work, they need to fix the leak. But with the answer you received I would run far far away from the idiot.

Hard to believe a mechanic would say something that stupid. Perhaps he was suggesting the valves should be checked as long as the valve cover was going to be coming off anyway?

ThatGPzGuy wrote:

Z1Driver wrote: I have to agree if some goof ball told me my valve cover gasket was leaking because the valve tolerances were off, I would never step inside that shop again. Period. Like already stated, valves have nothing to do with valve cover gaskets. If the shop did the work, they need to fix the leak. But with the answer you received I would run far far away from the idiot.

Hard to believe a mechanic would say something that stupid. Perhaps he was suggesting the valves should be checked as long as the valve cover was going to be coming off anyway?

He's talking rubbish, obviously the tire pressures being too low is causing the oil leak

Update:

So I finally got the valve cover off, and the valve clearances were fine (no surprise there as my clearances were set less than a year ago).
But the shop that did my rebuild put gasket sealant all over the valve cover gasket.
I scraped off as much of the gasket that was stuck to the engine as i could, taking care to not dig too deep.

Do any of you guys recommend any specific products or way to go about smoothing, cleaning, preping, and sealing (where they may be abrasions) the new gasket?
I have a set of cam end caps and a tutorial I found on a KZ1000 to help me set the caps.

I use High Temp Silicon for the end plugs. There are some plastic abrasive wheels that do a good job of taking off old gaskets. Sounds like they used Permatex. If that's what he used, he is a moron. High Temp Silicon will work and can be removed easily.
Steve

That crusty brown caked on stuff i was scraping off is permatex I'm pretty sure...

I learned about that crap when I was 18. Non hardening my a$$.
Steve