Uh oh, I found a leak. What is going on.

[Logroller]

Okay, so a few months back. I did a lot of general work on the '06 TE450. One of which was stopping a minor oil weep at two points on the gasket seal to the top end of the motor. I went on a ride and 15 minutes in to it SMOKE!!!. Turns out the gasket blew out and oil started jetting out on to the hot engine. I have no idea what happened other than the thought that the gasket did not seat quite right when I put things back together. So I cleaned things up and reinstalled the seal and cover. Took it for a 10 minute spin or so and all seems okay, except the issue stated below. Although, a true test will come with a longer heat up and revving session.

Now, to the question at hand. After the fix, I noticed a small oil leak that seems to be coming from the header of the exhaust. Does this mean that I am screwed and blew something out going back to the gasket issue or what??? I cannot imagine that is oil residue from the first incident.

What gives, anyone?

Cheers.

 

[K7MDL]

You might clean it off really well and look for cracks. Put some baby powder on it to help it show oil seepage quicker and easier if needed. Only oil in that area I can think of would have to come from above the header, either through the wall (oil from open area around cams under the valve cover), or more likely dribbling out through the valve cover gasket itself. If you are saying it is coming from inside the header connection then oil could be coming through your exhaust valve seals.

 

[Logroller]

The gasket was leaking a tiny, tiny bit on the left at the two points of the half moon part of the gasket. So I cleaned things up and went for a ride. On the ride, the gasket blew out oil in a different spot, the front area. My guess was I did not seat it right. Although that's pretty difficult to do as the top of the gasket goes in to the top of the motor groove and the bottom of the gasket sits flat with the motor. It doesn't even overlay the edge. Lame design in my mind. But hey, despite my opinion it should work.

Where exactly is the oil coming from hmmm?? At the moment it appears to be exiting from where the exhaust connects to the motor. My guess is things leaked here and there and a clean up/burn out will resolve the issue as there has been zero issues with the motor/oil prior to the gasket oil release. Which again, I attribute to an issue on my part as it happened right after me working on it.

Gonna pull it slightly apart again and clean out what I can and then try act number 3.

 

[MorrisBetter]

I'm not sure if this will helpful for your situation, but there is product that can be added to oil that will cause oil to flouress under a black-light. It's made by a company called Interdynamics. It's called, "fluorescent leak detector".

The way to use this is to add it to your oil and run the engine for a few minutes. Then shine a black-light on the engine. The glow points to the leak.

I bought the stuff at a local chain parts store, so I'd guess that its commonly available

 

[ray_ray]

Are you talking about the valve cover gasket leaking? If so, maybe add some of that silicone gasket sealant to the places it is leaking ....

 

[HUSKYnXJnWI]

Yea- as ray-ray said the "half moons" on the cam cover gasket is supposed to have some silicone gasket sealant on them upon re-instalation. Clean things up and use some silicone sealant.

ALSO, ensure you do not have too much oil in your bike and ensure your crank case vent hose flows freely- either would cause internal presures that would cause leaking gaskets. Path of least resistance....

 

[Slowpoke]

The valve cover gasket shouldn't 'blow out' unless there is another issue altogether - such as the breather hose plugged/clogged.

It's not uncommon for guys to improperly re-install the cover and/or gasket. Check that first. Also make sure you put a bit of RTV on the gasket on the grooves in the half moons &at each point where the two half moons meet the flat areas (4 places). If you don't do that, it will seep there.

 

[HUSKYnXJnWI]

I completely do not disagree with you Slowpoke

 

[Chayzed Pilot]

I had the same thing happen to mine. I had the gasket not "quite" right. As a precaution I used some Freebond 1104 on mine. Problem solved.

 

[ray_ray]

Mine started seeping around the "half moons" areas first last year and now over time, it appears the valve cover is seeping in a few other places ... I'm not sure if I have over-tightened the 4 bolts on top or not t cause this but the gasket looks OK so I'm starting to use the RTV stuff on mine ...

It doesn't really hurt anything but I don't like oil leaks \ seeping on my engine

 

[Logroller]

Are you talking about the valve cover gasket leaking? If so, maybe add some of that silicone gasket sealant to the places it is leaking ....

Yup, and that issue is resolved. Just hoping the other header oil thing is just from oil blowing everywhere. I'll take the exhaust off and clean things out.

As for the gasket "blowing out," it must of been a little shy of torque specs and/or slightly seated wrong. Either way, I knew I did that part and could fix it. Was really wondering about oil in the other location. Slowpoke, I'll look at the breather hose and such. With everything crammed together in a small space it is always possible for things to get kinked.

Cheers.

 

[Logroller]

Well, a month later since the last post and more since the last ride and I found this. There appears to be (99% sure it's from this location), that I have a leak at the cylinder head nut (this is the nut to the bolt under the exhaust ports and the above the coolant ports-see pic.) Seems like a really odd place for a leak, but possibly an easy one to fix with sealant (not really as it seems the only way to back that nut off is by taking the motor out - WTF) as the leak seems between the bolt threads and the nut threads. What gives with a leak at this location? It sort of makes no sense to me as there appears to be no leaks between the top (cylinder head gasket) and bottom of the motor.