| Author | Message | ||
     Marcodesade |
So I took the beast in for a tire change, but as I was bringing it out of the garage I noticed a teardrop of oily residue on the left side. No real liquid, just a smudgy trail that seemed to originate somewhere around the rear header. I'm certain it was new, since I had just wiped the bike down a few days earlier. Turns out it's the head gasket. They're now waiting for delivery of 4 gaskets (sigh). Anyone else have a similar experience? | ||
| Dipstick |
Are you certian it's a head gasket? Mine did the same thing in the same place and it was from the engine breather hose where it attaches to the bottom of the air box. | ||
| Spank |
Dipstick- did you notice this on your stator cover? I have noticed oily residue on top of the cover next to some sort of plastic cover (excuse my ignorance of actual part terms). If it's just like what you have stated then I will have to check that! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Never had any experience with the 1125 specifically, but based on other water cooled bikes I have worked on, it seems unlikely that a bad head gasket would cause oil on the outside of the motor without first blowing all your coolant out of your radiator and overheating... | ||
| Ohsoslow |
Head gaskets seal both coolant and oil, it is more common to have the head gasket fail and loose your coolant but it can also fail at a point where oil passes through. | ||
| Joshinga |
Just to add something in my experience the head gaskets. If it is blown the coolant will leak into the oil channels. So if your oil has a milky look to it I would lean toward the head gasket But if not I would look elsewhere but not rule it out. | ||
| Marcodesade |
Yeah, my belief that it's the head gasket is based solely on what the tech said. The bike is of course no longer in front of me to examine. But I do recall that the oil was not on the stator cover itself, but (like Spank's) on the top of the plastic cover which I believe covers the belt and pulley. A little far back to be the breather, I think . . . | ||
| Dipstick |
The oil I found on mine originated near the top of the rear cylinder head on the left side and was running about half way down the cylinder. It never made it to the stator cover or the plastic sprocket cover but probably would have had I not found it first. A ty-wrap around the breather hose where it connects to the bottom of the air box fixed my problem. Yes, it was a PITA to get that ty-wrap on! | ||
| Marcodesade |
I called the shop up and spoke to my service advisor (tech is gone for the day). Notes confirm that the presenting problem is a blown head gasket. Other parts, including 3 other gaskets, are simply things that need to be gone through to get to the head gasket. The advisor promises to talk to the tech tomorrow and confirm that there was no coolant in the oil. | ||
| Dipstick |
This is the first blown head gasket I've about on the 1125's. Let us know how it turns out. Will be checking mine more closely now. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
wonder if not a head gasket but maybe a rocker box gasket? i have had those blow out before due to oil return passages being blocked | ||
| Firemanjim |
Seems odd to see oil from head gasket,usually get sound or compression leak. Oil leak usually from some other gasket.And how was bike running? | ||
| Marcodesade |
When I first posted, I called it "oily residue," and since then we've all just kind of abbreviated that to "oil." I don't really know that it was oil, but it was damp, blackish,and a little on the grungy side. Wasn't much of it, but it looked like oil to me. I suppose it could be the rocker cover, the breather, or hell, maybe the front brake reservoir  . And although the valve cover gasket is one of the gaskets on order, the tech --- who actually has the bike disassembled and has presumably inspected the leak --- says head gasket. At this point, I'll take "head gasket" for $100. The bike had been running normally --- I just repacked my exhaust, and I've lately noticed a bit of a stutter when I pin the throttle, but I had been thinking a tune or (more likely) an Erik Buell Racing ECM is the fix for that . . . (Message edited by MarcoDeSade on May 13, 2010) |
