at least i think it's the head gasket. it's the one that sits just under the exhaust headers (2008 sm610)... it's been getting warmer here the past few weeks and as such the bike has been running hotter. have noticed a slight weep from the gasket around under the exhaust headers. is this another husky feature or do you think i should get it replaced? i will check the torque on all the relevant bolts but could do without replacing the gasket if it's not absolutely necessary. cheers fellas
You can try re-torqing the head bolts, sometimes works, the last thing you want is the little leak to suddenly turn into a big leak when you out on a ride and you don't notiice, that would be a very costly mistake. Head off and replace gasket if re-torqing doesn't work.
yep true. although my husky is only doing real short stuff at the mo so it's possible to keep an eye on it. hmmmm, really could do without shelling £££ on getting the gasket done. don't have the facilities at the mo to do myself
Quite possibly. Personally I'd just stick a torque wrench on in the cross cross pattern the manual suggests and go from there. If any are more than a tiny bit loose maybe back em off and retorque but I'd worry about damaging the gasket if I backed the bolts out totally. Something I noticed yesterday is I've been riding around with the left side fuel petcock closed! A mate helped me do the valves the other week and he put the tank back on. Shoulda checked it! Not sure what would happen if one of the fuel petcocks is closed as the right one seems to link to the left one...?
That allows fuel to cross over between the lower left "wing" and the lower right "wing" on the tank; having one or both petcocks closed will only cause the fuel level in the left "wing" to remain high when the overall level drops low. No issues to operation other than reducing your fuel range.
thanks man, thought as much. it didn't seem to be able to do much more than that. not sure if i've had a slight coolant leak from the expansion tank pipe as the level seemed a tad low. wondering if this is what's finding it's way on to the engine and then dripping down to gasket. no leaks today after 2 x 12 mile trips but has been much cooler here than when it did it the other day. something else i noticed is a light coating of something where the headers go into engine... do i worry too much??
It's hard to see what it is from the photo but if that's coolant then its not from the head gasket as that's below the headers?
yeah the original drip came from the gasket area which led me to think it was that that was leaking. now i'm wondering either expansion tank leak (i've now tightened banjo bolt more) and that's what dripped down. dunno what that light bit of varnishing is but it wasn't there before i rode home. it looks like it might be escaping from the manifold but could be remnants of coolant vaporizing?
ok so i don't think it's the head gasket which is good news. definitely something to do with this strange liquid though as i gave it a hard ride this morning and seemed to be more of this stuff in the same area. can see how it would drip down to the gasket too. pulled the tank and no sign of leakage from the valve covers. coolant doesn't seem to be leaking anymore. very strange...
ok this is an odd one. it's not the head gasket. i've checked the valve covers and they seem to be ok, no signs of leakage anywhere. the coolant tank is all sorted now, no leakage going on there yet i'm still finding this weird liquid in the same place as the photo a few posts above. sometimes there's more of it, sometimes less, usually depending on how hard it's been ridden. the exhaust is not smoking or spitting any oil and there is no leakage from the manifold end. do these bikes have weep holes on the front of the engines? the only thing i can think is it's condensation as the liquid isn't particularly oily...
Isn't this how we keep an actual "reserve" amount of fuel on the FI tanks? Keep the left petcock closed and then open if the right side of tank actually runs dry............especially if "low" fuel light system is questionable?
I believe some owners have found the bottom inlet nipple of the expansion tank clogged/closed from factory molding process and therefore coolant overflow gets trapped or even pressurized in overflow tube and leaks at expansion tank inlet fitting.
I should've updated this post. In my case it was actually the valve covers leaking. I didn't think it was but after doubling the cover gaskets I've not had a repeat leak. Good to know about the expansion tank thing though
Did you actually fit two gaskets? I believe the bolts themselves can leak oil and should be siliconed?
Yep just popped 2 gaskets on each cover and it stopped. There could only have been a tiny leak before but obviously as the engine got hot the oil spread further
