Wanting to sell my 1980 GS1100L, but wanting to fix new oil leak first

[Guest]

I need you all?s advice...I intend to sell my ?80 GS1100L but on my last quick ride in the fall I noticed a small oil leak. I cranked her up a few weeks ago, noticed the leak again, overtightened the valve cover gasket, which caused more of a leak. So, I replaced the valve cover gasket and did a little more observation. Using what you guys said in other posts, I sprayed all key areas with foot powder spray. It isn?t leaking hardly at all unless ran under higher revs. What I see is that the valve cover gasket is good, a little bit of oil coming out of the oil pressure switch housing area (assume a new o-ring is needed), the cam chain tensioner area is good, the tach cable entry is good...but a small leak on the front left corner of the breather cover (probably what made me think the valve cover gasket was leaking in the first place...new gasket needed I presume)...but here is what I see is the issue: the cylinder head gasket area is leaking, primarily on the front of the engine (small area on the back right). When I tightened the center front bolt that is pointing up (bolt #10 on the crankcase parts schematic), between the #2 and #3 exhaust ports, that area stopped leaking.

So my question is can I take the valve cover gasket off, and then check and re-torque all exposed ?cylinder head nuts? in the head area, assuming I can tighten them down more, with the hope of stopping the leak that is occurring on the cylinder head gasket? Is that gasket similar to the valve cover cork gasket, meaning if you over-tighten it will lose it?s sealing properties, which would mean a new gasket would need to be installed). If it is the latter, that is probably more than I want to take-on, and I will probably just see if I can sell the bike and much lower price than where i was thinking originally. She?s been fairly bullet proof in my 2 1/2 years of ownership. I?ve addressed quite a few items (electrics, carbs, etc., to make sure everything is in perfect working order). Anyway, I?ll wait and see what the consensus is on the cylinder head gasket. Thanks all.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Re-torque the head nuts and bolts, in the order prescribed in the service manual. You have nothing to lose. If it doesn’t stop the leak, you’re no further behind, and you didn’t spend any money.

 

[rphillips]

A few yrs back I was chasing an oil leak, looked at all the stuff you've mentioned. Long story short finally found it was the "O" ring on the right, front, center head nut was the problem. Just thinking while you're in there re-torqueing them anyhow, it may be worth replacing these 2 "O" rings.

 

[grcamna2]

Re-torque the head nuts and bolts, in the order prescribed in the service manual. You have nothing to lose. If it doesn?t stop the leak, you?re no further behind, and you didn?t spend any money.

The cylinder head gasket is steel shim and it won't hurt to re-torque it in the sequence prescribed by the factory service manual.I personally re-torqued my 82-83' GS1100E's by loosening all the cylinder head nuts up about a full turn each in an 'X' pattern(the threads sometimes sticks/seizes a bit from never being moved)in sequence,this helps to get a 'true' torque number on each cylinder cap nut,then re-torque them all equally starting from the inner 4 in an 'X' to pattern factory specs.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the comments. This forum is amazing and couldn’t have done all the things I have done without your help (and BikeCliff’s website too). I will take the valve cover back off and re-torque everything as suggested. Fingers crossed!