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Lots of oil around tappets..blocked return line?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bj
  • Start date Start date
B

bj

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I got my '78 GS750 winter restoration back together last week. It fired right up, no problem at all, so I took it out for a shakedown run just to make sure nothing was going to fall off. It ran great but when I got back I noticed an oil leak from one end of the valve cover. Closer inspection seemed to point to a leak around one of the rubber half moon at the end of the head. When I put the engine back together the rubber seals looked ok so I didn't replace them.

When I pulled off the valve cover to check the leak, the depressions around both number 1 valve tappets were full of oil, right up to the edge of the valve cover gasket. Is this normal or do I have a problem with an oil return line being blocked? How much oil is normally left in the head around the tappets? The bike was on it's side stand so maybe I'm just being paranoid.
 
It's normal (and a good sign). The engine design has the oil being pushed up to the cam journals and just a gravity return.
 
As Jeff said, that's normal.
I always lean the bike over some after shut off so the oil drains better and the next day the valve check/adjustment work is a little cleaner.
Those little half-moons are a pain. Even new ones will leak sometimes.
 
One observation from some other bikes.

I always assumed when the line-boring was done for the cams that it always perfectly intersected the plane between the head and the cam caps... was I ever wrong. On one of my Z1's I struggled mightily to get APE aluminum cam-end plugs to work - just gave up - it was puking oil constantly. A friend took them and put them in his bike and had no problems... ...that got me thinking...

...so I started to measure cam cutouts in various heads and found on some Kawasaki engines the line-boring can be high or low by as much at 10-15 thou - a fairly large amount. With the rubber cam-end plugs they are slightly oversize and squish down where the metal ones could not - and some rubber ones even struggle to fit effectively.

I have not done the same measurements with Suzuki heads, but it would not surprise me if the same issues exist there.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll replace the half moons and see if that takes care of the leak.
 
You can turn those cam plugs around also instead of buying new ones. This will save you a couple of bucks. Just make sure you have a new set for the next valve adjustment.
 
I just bought all four half moons for $10.00 at cycle recycle ll in Indianapolis. I don't know if that is a good price, but I don't have any leaks up there anymore,
 
I bought a set from Z1 Ent for $7 something - I searched around and Z1 was about the cheapest - and they arrived in a couple of days. CRC is good, but they seem very expensive on some items.
 
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