81 GS450 Oil Leak

[Woody]

Hello everyone,
I would like to start with a statement that i am not very mechanically savy, that being said i am here to see if i can get some of the more machanically savy people on here to lend a hand, or in this case knowledge.
I have an 81 GS450L that started leaking oil at the end of last season. I finished out the season and parked her in a garage until this spring, now that it has warmed up enough for me to start working on it again I though I would start digging around to see what the cause of the oil leak might be. I took it to a local garage and they said that it was probably a head gasket leak or possibly a valve cover leak.
My question is, is there a way for me to easily determine which gasket it is that is leaking? If it is a valve cover i feel that i can porbably accomplish this repair myself. If it actually turns out to be a head gasket, i am not sure if it is something that i can do and i might need to turn else where for the needed repairs.

Thank you in advance for any tips, hints or help you might be able to offer up on this

[Bustedknuckles]

More than likely the valve cover gasket. those are typically the culprit. an easy way to tell is to clean up the motor really well where the oil has leaked out. (remove ALL oily residue) then, run the bike a bit and see if you spot where the oil is coming out... depending on the severity of the leak a little riding around may be in order... or it may start to drip as soon as it starts up...

another really easy way to determine is to simply look and see if there is oil ABOVE the head gasket... once oil comes out of the motor it goes down (you know, gravity and all...) if there is oil above the head gasket than it is leaking from the valve cover... if it is bone dry above head gasket and all oily below it... its probally the head...

if it is a valve cover gasket (most likely) you will definately be able to do it yourself... just unbolt the cover, clean the surfaces where the gasket goes, put the new gasket on and bolt the cover back on...

any other questions?

[tkent02]

Clean the oil completely off with a degreaser, good and clean. Apply some kind of powder like baby power or athlete's foot spray in the area in question, and run the engine. Maybe ride it a while if it doesn't leak right away. Stop and look for the leak before it spreads all over the place. You should be able to pinpoint the leak exactly. Then clean the powder off, that stuff looks like crap.

[Woody]

Thank you guys for the great tips and advice. From what i can see there is basically oil covering the engine from the bottom of Valve Cover Gasket down to near the starter cover plate? The small metal plate on the top of the none fin part of the engine (again sorry for not being techinacal, but mecahnics aren't really my thing). Every thing from the Valve Cover Gasket and up seems clean, but i would imagine Oil would have a very difficult time getting higher then that with out some human intervention . I will pick up some engine degreaser this weekend and (hopefully, weather permitting) i will clean off the engine and see if i can make a positive identification as to the location of the leak.

Thanks again for all the insite and tips as to why my baby is leaking

[Bustedknuckles]

it sounds like you have a good starting point, and from what your describing, it does sound like the valve cover gasket... again, they are typically the culprits... its a very easy job to perform and there are plenty of video's and write up's on here that will walk you through it if you need any clarification...

and sorry for the delay but welcome to the forum!!!

[Skuld]

Woody came over and I'm uploading pictures for him.







Let us know what you think?

[Guest]

That first picture makes me think valve cover breather gasket... easy fix! Bit hard to tell from the others though as none of that oil looks particularly fresh.

I'd start by giving it a good scrub down to get as much of the old stains off as possible, then see where the fresh oil appears.

Oil will always run downwards...

[Skuld]

Yarrr I have new pictures in regards to his repair, went ahead with the Valve cover gasket change, also found the fuel tube had a crack in the top of it and was bent slightly inwards, thinking that messed with the mix. I'll post the pictures when I get home. The work was fun... I think it's time I focused on my bike again.

[Woody]

Thank you for the excellent recommendation Pete, my thoughts were along the same line, only i didn't know what the name of the gasket was . My next step will probably be the purchase of the Breather Gasket and where i have already replaced the Valve cover gasket i am under the impression the job will be just about as easy as that one was. I will try to post up some more pics after that gasket is taken care of (or i will ask Skuld to, as he has a very nice camera). Thank you guys for all of your help .

[Guest]

Good stuff guys, always good to see GSR members working together

No probs on the help, and I still may be wrong but that's what it looks like. And yeah replacing that should be real simple, there's only four bolts up there too.

[Skuld]

Trying something new in regards to posting, to make my life easier so I don't have to adjust the images size every time in Photoshop. We shall see how it works.

Below is the tooling of the valve cover gasket. Worry not, the surfaces were cleaned proper to remove the old gasket. We put the new one back on and we were golden.

As posted before, not 100% sure this has fixed the small leak. But we shall see when the weather gets better.

[Guest]

Good stuff, let's hope it's all fixed! If it is the breather cover gasket as well then at least that's simple and cheap too.