Re: Oil

["william kenney" <tnt720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One VERY important place to look for an oil leak which appears to be coming
from the head is the rubber gasket that fits the spark plug hole.
If this is leaking, the oil will come out from the bottom of the head area
between the fins making it look like the head is leaking.
The rubbers are only a couple of bucks and I replace mine when doing every
other valve adjustment.

Bill Kenney
Foster,RI
96R1100RS
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "BMW Oilhead List" <oilheads@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: Oil


> 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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