GS850 Oil Leak

[shields17]

I have a '79 GS850 that I'm trying to track down an oil leak around the head.

The leak seems to be concentrated in-between the 3&4 cylinders. At first I thought it was the head gasket but it seems too low for that





Any ideas on where to start looking next?

[Steve]

Start looking at the BACK of the engine.

If you don't see anything as high as the head gasket leaking there, check the cam chain tensioner. Besides the gasket between the tensioner and the cylinders, there are two o-rings in the tensioner itself that can leak. The oil then gets blown around and finds its way between the cylinders up to where you are seeing the mess on the front.

.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Clean it up and dry it well, then spray powdered foot spray everywhere oil could leak from, from the breather cover down to the engine case. Start the engine, and watch to see what gets wet first. The leak should reveal itself in short time.

[ukjules]

I had a similar issue to yours.
Agree def with foot powder spray ! very good.
I checked but could not find an issue at the front.

I also agree with back of engine .... a place where
I simply could not believe oil could cause that.

Cam chain tensioner gasket
& cam cover gasket on mine were clearly leaking
and oil made it's way to the front where there is a channel .

[bwringer]

Here's how to fix the most common sources for these leaks:

Rebuilding the cam chain tensioner:

https://www.bwringer.com/gs/camchaintens.html

Replacing the tach cable fitting seals:

https://www.bwringer.com/gs/tachcableseals.html

[shields17]

Perfect - thanks all for the ideas! Hopefully I'll be able to solve it this weekend