250-500cc leaking head bolt washers, replacements??

ive got a leak on one of my head bolt washers, they are a thick steel washer with a special shaped oring in the center of it. the husky ones apear to be $5.25 each?! so im not going to buy those, whats everyone do for replacements?

i assume i can find a round oring that will squish to seal the leak, but wanted to check to see what everyone has done first.

this is the oem no. 8B0064988

I've only seen copper washers.


Odd issue, they're all torqued in spec?

Yup. Torqued aand torqued again. I think I'll just stick with copper.

You can't just put an o-ring on top of them, the factory washer is set up so that the o-ring seals BOTH sides.

You might be able to cut the factory o-ring out with a razor and just put a new one in there loose. If you take a couple measurements, you ought to be able to get new o-rings for an industrial supply house.

All that being said, since the new washers are only $5, it seems unlikely that it's worth the trouble unless you happen to have a drawer full of o-rings already.

there shouldn't be coolant getting too your head studs in the first place right?????? what model bike are we dealin with?

That's a good point. The bolts are between the two sealing o-rings on the head, but when torqued it should but pretty well sealed. I suppose it's possible, but seams odd...

Anyway, I'd go with copper washers. The Husky new Huskies are the only ones I've seen with this odd ball o-ring inset washers. My KTMs and Kawasakis all used copper.

Considering that the head bolts are right in the middle of the coolant passage, it seems pretty likely that coolant will be getting to them. The odds of two metal surfaces sealing against each other are pretty much zero; that's why we need to use o-rings between the head and the cylinder.

Copper washers ought to work fine, but o-rings are good enough for a ton of other places (like head to cylinder), so they are good enough for the head studs for me. Probably just need to replace one that got pinched or something.

umm heat the copper washer till they glow red and let them cool down this will make them softer and seal between the bolt shoulder and the head surface.
how clean are the surfaces?

I was thinking a round oring in place of the crazy 8 sided oring. The right sized one would most likely seal but perhaps too much messing around. $5.25/ea. From my understanding.

So I'll use coppers from any bike. 8mm. Oil lines off a yz450 I have around. I will anneal them and copper cost them.

And yea the bolts just hang out in the coolant passages. I'll manufacture finned headed bolts, sell them as extra cooling capacity. Hahahaha.

Copper coat gasket spray I mean. Not "copper cost"

sorry im not familiar with teh 8sided o ring, if its anything like the bently dowdy seals they are one shot wonders.