Posted by frank on January 15, 2002 at 23:19:56:
Ok, a couple of weeks ago I posted (see: Goin in) about my bike (now wife's bike) '97 Savage leaking a lot of oil. I tore the bike down to the cylinder to replace the head gasket and fix the "infamous" seal. I never really knew exactly where it was and what it looked liked until I got in there. Some of you that might be as curious as I was when someone mentioned this seal. If you open up the cam/valve spring cover, you will see a round looking hole on the right side, just behind the right exhaust valve spring (when sitting on the bike) that appears to be filled with oil. I always thought it was the oil passageway to the top of the head from the crankcase. This is actually just a round 1/2" deep cap that once removed with needle nose pliers exposes the head bolt (outside of the engine) that is recessed down in the head. You can see this bolt when looking into the head cavity from the front of the engine. This is the only way to get to this head bolt. That is why there is a seal/cap in the first place. You can see why this is a poor design. The seal/cap must take a lot of pressure around the edge and start to leak after awhile. The only thing that holds it in place is a permatext sealant. Anyway, since I am convinced that I had multiple leaks, I kept going down to the head gasket and replaced that. The combustion chamber actually looked pretty good for an 80k bike. I could still see the cross-hatch marks of the original hone on the cylinder walls (the bike has used synthetic oil every 2500 miles). It was kinda weird, the top of the piston only had carbon in the middle, but the edges were completely clear! Actually shiny mettal. The combustion dome (valve seats) were pretty full of carbon. The operation went smootly except that I had to drop the engine slightly to clear the top of the bike frame when removing the cylinder head. I also reused the original seal as no dealer had one in stock and I am an impatient person (just ask my wife). I used a high temp permatext gasket material around the seal. I got the bike back togetther last night. I am a slow/methodical worker. It took me a day and 1/2 on this job total. I have to wait 24hrs for the sealant to cure before starting. I hope I got it all back togeter again correctly. I will find out tonight when I get home and attempt to start it and take it for a shake down cruise. Wish me luck. Sorry for the long post, but I don't know how to make short sentences. Everyone ride safe.
Frank
Southern California