| Author | Message | ||
     Purpony |
so my front head gasket had a leak so I gathered up all the parts needed and took my bike apart. Replaced the base gasket and then moved onto the new head gasket. There are dowels that the head sits on and it shows you put o-rings around these to align the head gasket. What the hell are they aligning? The head gasket sits ON TOP of them and the hole in the head gasket aligns the head gasket. So I torque the head bolts in the correct order to the correct torque. I can see light right through the head gasket. I un-torque it like it says and re-torque it. Now I cant see any light and all looks good. Put the rocker box on and a plug in and fire it up.... the head gasket is leaking more now then it ever did. WTF? With the o-rings in place the head gasket does not even sit flush. When i took the old gasket and o-rings off, its like the head gasket has to crush the o-rings and the o-rings indent into the head gasket. any input would be great. Thank you | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
What gaskets are you using? I've only replaced head gaskets with cometic gaskets before. They specifically say NOT to use the o-rings during assembly. I don't know anything about stock gaskets. Never installed them and I was too distracted by the gaping hole in my piston to pay any attention to the old head gaskets. | ||
| Blackm2 |
I had the same problem with my rear head Marc. Ended up blowing off a big chunk of the silver material and it sounded like a train whistle. Had to re-do it. Second time it worked good. I didn't do it the second time, but it would be a good idea to change the head bolts as well. Next time I have to do it, I will be changing out those head bolts. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
IIRC, the manual specifically says NOT to reuse old headbolts. I believe it's because the bolts are designed to stretch a small amount when torqued down, but don't quote me on that. For the price of head bolts, it's worth the peace of mind to go ahead and replace them. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Take a look at the gaskets as the new ones from HD do not use o-rings. They have been redesigned. Look on underside and you can see the outline of the built in o-rings. Package should say " do not use WITH o-rings." Old style HD gaskets needed them. Head bolts are very re-usable. | ||
| Purpony |
Firemanjim- interesting about the no o-rings. I got all my gaskets through a harley tech who got everything at cost for me. He included the o-rings. |
