Oil

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim:

What they all said....BUT, I'm going to suggest that you follow the
mechanic's maxim:  "Try the easy stuff first."

Do you remember when this leak started?  Was it after a valve adjustment?

For this first part, I'll assume that it WAS after a valve adjustment and
that you or yours may have a slight flaw in the valve cover assembly
technique...skip this part if you're SURE that this is not the problem.

1.  The surface of the valve cover, both around the perimiter and in the
center where the spark plug is must be clean and dry.

2.  The rubber gaskets must be clean a dry.

3.  The engine contact points must be clean and dry.   Note especially that
the contact surface along the bottom will get oily if you wait too long to
put the cover on.   re-wipe right before putting the cover on.

4.  Torque the allen bolts to the recommended torque...no more.   It seems
ridiculously loose, but it works.   You need a small torque wrench that
reads inch-lbs to get this and they're the same price or more than the
larger ones, but they're worth it for the small accurate jobs.    You can do
this by feel after a while, but you need a torque wrench to get the gist of
it a couple of times.

- ----------

OK, your bike still leaks.  It wasn't the valve cover.   Next is re-torquing
the heads.  This procedure is spelled out in the BMW manual as well as
Haynes.

You do one bolt at a time.   Loosen, then re-torque according to directions.
Make sure you have a good torque wrench and make sure you follow the
directions.   Tighter is not better.  Correct is better.

It's been recommended that this procedure be done at 20K or so, as I vaguely
recall.   If you've never done it, you may have a likely cause.

I did it on my RT and never had a leak.  Traded at 62K...tight as a drum.

- -TB


>Look carefully, Jim.  Is it the head gasket?  How many miles on your bike?

>Our RS needed head gaskets at about 55K.  It was a mess and it was kind of
tricky to figure out where the oil was actually coming from.  I did both of
the gaskets while I was at it.  Today, the RS is getting an oil pressure
sender.  It's started leaking from its face.  I sprayed the engine cases
with some engine cleaner and then watched to see where the leak developed
from.

>Both of those issues made the whole left side of the bike pretty messy.

>dave

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