Leak valve cover

Hi there,

I have a 1998 honda shadow ace tourer vt 1100, the bike has a very small oil leak, but the bike runs great the garage guy said that
i need to replace the valve cover. I was wondering if, indeed i need to replace it and what would the cost be , and also, since it is small
can Blue devil product be use to seal the leak?

Unless the cover is cracked or otherwise damaged, all you probably need to do is replace the gasket. Using some sort of liquid sealer instead of replacing the gasket almost never works.
I do not know how difficult that job is on a Shadow, but I am sure the procedure is covered in the factory service manual, and there probably is a forum for Shadow owners with members who are glad to help.
This is a forum of air-cooled Kawasaki owners, so most of us have little or no knowledge of and experience with water cooled Honda v-twins.

It looks like Honda VT 1100 valve covers need only some liquid sealant.
The valve cover and the cylinder head are machined together without a gasket.
Your garage guy should read the service manual before he give you this stupid advice.

www.manualedereparatie.info/manuale/hond...dereparatie.info.zip



Happy wrenching

The text on that page of the manual says the rocker arm cover has a gasket, but says nothing about a gasket for the cylinder head cover. I suppose the solution depends on where the leak really is.

Yes TexasKZ, for models with a three piece valve cover.

Oh, Gramma!!!
Only Honda or Ducati would think that a three piece cam-valve-head cover would be a good idea. I guess it is only three because they could not figure out how to make it in four pieces :blink: :blink:

Trust me, i will it figured out this month how much parts are possible. :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:
I let you know after i re-newing the timing belt and adjust the valve clearance on the DUCATI.





Michael

I love the Ducs, but even ordinary maintenance like that requires the patience of a saint.

I suspect that is why nearly all of the used ones over here have very few miles on them.

Italian machines can be really fast and beautiful but are often built with little regard to the effort or cost required to perform maintenance. As an example - the Ferrari 348 requires removing the engine from the car to replace the rubber cam timing belt, and the belt should be replaced every 3 years regardless of the mileage. The belt replacement cost runs $3500 - $5000, but the dealer will highly recommend other maintenance while the engine is out of the car, and that can bump the price up to about $7000. Given all that I couldn't afford to own a Ferrari 348 even if the tooth fairy gave me one for free. :woohoo: Ed

Ducati motorcycles, the poor man's Ferrari. :laugh:

Sadly, Kawasaki swerved that direction with the new Concours. I understand that a valve adjust and sparkplug change is about a 12 hour job, most of which is removing and replacing bodywork and various bits of subframe.