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Huge oil leak coming from exhaust silencer

  • Thread starter Thread starter nicholascott
  • Start date Start date
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nicholascott

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I finally got my GS550 running. It idles and sounds real nice. Thanks to the carb rebuild guide and and new o-rings. Anyway, while was being happy about fact it was running nice I look down and see oil dripping off of my exhaust pipe. There is nowhere on the motor that I can see oil dripping from onto the exhaust. The oil looks like it is dripping off of the exaust silencer clamp. When I give it gas I can see the dripping increase. When the bike is off there is no oil leak. It's only leaking out of one of the silencer clamps. What kind of problem do I have. And how hard is this to fix?
 
What is the cause of the leak? What would I need to do to repair it?
 
It could be several things: bad oil ring, cracked valve guide, cracked head, bad head gasket, ... Bad head gasket would probably be most likely. I would remove the exhaust and pinpoint which cylinder is doing it. If you then do a leakdown (or pressurize the cylinder), you can often see or hear where the gasket is leaking.
 
I tried searching and I can't find a repair guide. Is there a repair guide similar to the carb rebuild guide on the forums?
 
Does anyone have a guide or instructions on replacing the head gasket and seals?
 
first you need to check valve seals as they commonly wear our, they will make blue smoke on first start up and can also cause this.

For ruling out the rest you need to take a compression test and see what your out.

My guess is bad valve seals

Pull your plugs and see if one of them is glossy black and wet
 
Any chance it comming from the mystery hole and just looks like its comming from the pipe ? Have you replaced your stator or pulled your starter ? Oil gets past the groumet the stator wires pass threw and the starter o-ring and into the starter cavity and out the hole on top of the pipes. Happened to me once and I thought I had real trouble. Good luck
 
The oil is only leaking off of one of the pipes. If you were sitting on the bike and going from right to left it would be the second pipe to the left. I can't see any oil coming off of the engine whatsoever. I got down and watched the oil build up on that 1 pipe and drip down. When I gave the bike gas the dripping increased by at lease 75%. When I let off of the gas it turns into a slow drip. When I shut the bike off, it completely stops. However, it only comes off of that one pipe. And there is absolutley no oil leaking off of the engine anywhere. I really would like to get this fixed asap.
 
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I can't see how it would be coming from the exhaust port without smoking out the neighborhood.
Is that pipe getting hot?
 
I'll get some pics up within the hour. It's smoking a little bit. Not a crazy amount of smoke though.
 
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Here are the pics of the part of the exhaust where the oil is leaking from. It's the only part of the exhaust that's leaking. The other 3 are not leaking any.
 
So, we're underneath the bike......have you had the oil pan off or changed the oil recently ? Perhaps a bolt or two isn't tight.

It's cramped quarters under there and tracking an oil leak can be difficult anyway. The leak could be coming from about anywhere and works it way down until it drips off the exhaust.

I'd get a little mirror on a stick and see what you can see. Or pull off the exhaust and see if you can tell where the leak is coming from.:)
 
or check the plugs. One will be wet and black if oil is in that cyl
 
I think if that much oil were coming through an exhaust valve and collecting in the exhaust (assuming that cylinder is actually firing), it would be smoking like a Hollywood fog machine.

Clean the engine and exhaust really well, I mean scrub it down good with simple green and a brush. Dry it off with a fan. When it is completely dry (generally overnight), lightly dust the engine and exhaust with talcum powder. Start the bike, let it run for a while (five minutes idling won't hurt anything), then shut it off. Use a fan on a light setting to blow the powder off. Examine closely any areas where the powder is stuck to the engine.

You'll find your leak.
 
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Hmm rebuilt the carbs & then theres a new leak .........

Imho the clue is in the very first post so i'll hazzard a guess its not oil but fuel contaminated with carbon from the exhaust caused by one or more carb being incorrectly set

i'd also check the oil for being contaminated with fuel before going in search of a mystery "oil" leak

just a thought
tone
 
I actually bought the bike as a salvage. It had been sitting for about 4 months. I had never seen the bike run until I got the carbs redone. I will make sure all of the bolts are tight around the oil pan and use the talcum poweder trick suggested. I would really like to find a simple solution. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll update and let you know what I find.
 
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