J motor oil leak.

Alrighty guys gotta question fer ya. I have this oil leak that appears to be coming from the gasket between the cylinder head and the cylinder block. So I am thinking cylinder head gasket. It looks like this gasket is actualy a 2 peice gesket. My question is How difficult is this going to be. and could it be a matter of possibly just tightening or retourqing the bolts? if not is there a way I might be able to wiggle these gaskets in without having to totaly tear this motor down? That kinda scares me. Im new to motorcycles. I am a mechanic so I am not stupid. These things are just a totaly different beast. If this were a detroit then I would be fine..

You might get lucky with torquing bolts but doubt it. No way to just slip them in. They go over cylinder studs. Not that bad of a job to do. Can be done with engine in frame. Get a manual.

yeah I got one. is this a pretty common spot to get an oil leak?

Not necessarily common for J models but bikes in particular can be rough on head gaskets. High temps and high comp ratios. Bikes are essentially highly tuned race motors when compared to cars so suffer from race motor type ailments.

Mike, It isn't a big deal. You remove carbs and pipes and tach cable. Take off valve cover and remove cams. Also, set the #4 piston to TDC before removing cams for ease of reference when reinstalling cams. Make sure you use a piece of wire to hang your cam chain and DO NOT drop cam chain into engine well as it can sometimes be a chore to fish out.

OK, remove the 12 nuts and two small bolts at the ends. (I am more familiar with older 900/1000 so if there are no 6mm bolts on the ends on the J motor, don't remove them hehe). Once they are removed, collect all the washers. The ones on the four end studs need to be annealed; that is, heated REAL HOT and dropped into water. This restores their crush-ability. OK, the nuts and bolts are off... now tap the head with a rubber mallet. Don't use a hammer as you can see the result as many heads are chipped. The head has a couple good pry points near the front and back where the meat is thicker. Use a broken off butter knife initially to pry as a screwdriver tends to dig into the alumimum. Once the head starts to pull from the block, you will be able to gently pry it off without scaring the gasket surface or breaking anything.

Once the head is off, you need to clean the gasket mating surfaces as the head gasket will stick to both sometimes. Sometimes, it will come off cleanly. Contact z1enterprises.com right now for a head gasket set and you might want to buy new valve stem oil seals. If you come out with the set of extra carbs you have and the brake pump, I will let you borrow a valve spring compressor and show you what needs done. Would be an excellent time to lap the valves and do a bit of clean up before putting the head back on. The valves come off using a special adapter that fits on the retainer in place of the normal bucket.

If you disassemble, make sure you use an egg crate to put the valve pieces in so when you reassemble, you won't have to check clearances (get shims back where they belong).

To reassemble, after clean up, you just put the new head gasket in place, put the head on while holding onto that cam chain and then put the bolts/nuts back on. These must be torqued TWICE in a very specific pattern so the gasket will seal. Some folks torque then warm the engine and then do the retorque. On a 900/1000 the two torque values are 18/25 lbs but they are a bit more for your engine I think. I have a torque wrench if you need to borrow one.

I will put some liquid gasket under the four outer crush washers to prevent leaks as this is where the oil for the cams will come up through. Put your pipes on with new gaskets (get them from z1enterprises.com as well) and the carbs. The price of gaskets from z1E is about 1/3 what you will pay for over at the Kaw dealer in Universal City!

Last, before ASSUMING you have a head gasket leak, the tach drive will often leak. The tach drive press fits into the head and is held on with a little tab and bolt. Under the drive is a 10mm oring (memory?). There is also an oil seal inside the drive where it mates with the cable. This is the usual culprit. The oil seal looks like a valve stem oil seal and when it leaks, oil will wash the front of your cylinder head. If you have a leak in front, wash it with carb cleaner and spray the area with some powder deodorant. Start the bike and when you see wet on the powder, shut it off and see where the leak is. Would be a shame to go to all the work of pulling the head to find it is just that little oil seal.

George. I found my problem. It was not the carbs it was the spark plug wires. I think I will go with the deodorent idea and see what happens. The bike runs great. just leaks oil out all over the place.the oil leak on the right side is due to a missing valve cover bolt. the There is a massive leak on the left side that actualy runs oil over my stator cover. it seems to come from the front of the engine. Soaked in oil.I think that everything else is jsut blown there from the wind.

My company just moved this week so give me till tuesday or wednesday and I will bring you the carbs, the vaccumm pump, and those engine crash guards I fixed for ya. my shop is just plain trashed. what kills me about this oil leak is it is recent. seems that since I have gotton all the cyl's to fire it has blown something loose or something. before I had never had all cyl's firing, nor did I have an oil leak. The bike runs great, as long as I keep the oil filled I can space this off for a while? or should I put it on my priority list.

No hurry getting the carbs back... I mainly wanted to mooch your pump as the bleeding is frustrating otherwise! As far as the need to get on the leak, hard to say as it depends on the rate of the leak. If you have a leaky head gasket, probably best to park it till it can get some attention as riding can cause other problems.

I honestly don't think you will find it the head gasket but more likely the tach drive. Oil from that thing will find its way ALL OVER THE PLACE... what I mean is, don't make any assumptions till you have pinpointed the problem area!

The carb cleaner and spray are pretty quick but the move of your work area probably has gotten in the way so have a good weekend and get the move stuff sorted out! Cheers!

I just went out to look at my bike and its oil problem. Seems I have an electronic tach not a mechanical one. any other ideas? I was hoping that would be it.

I just went out to look at my bike and its oil problem. Seems I have an electronic tach not a mechanical one. any other ideas? I was hoping that would be it.

I just went out to look at my bike and its oil problem. Seems I have an electronic tach not a mechanical one. any other ideas? I was hoping that would be it.