Topic: Oil all over front of Motor

[Bluegreen]

Hey all, a question for the hive.

I have a 1978 cb550 motor that I rebuilt a couple of years ago. First season was great, there was a small oil leak coming from the valve cover over cylinder 1 but that was my fault and not a big deal.

This season the front of the motor is covered in oil. There is a touch around the valve cover but nothing abnormal. From the bellow the head and on down quite wet. Just the front, back is dry. I was thinking maybe the two year old head gasket? But she doesn't blow any smoke and runs extremely strong. Maybe the oil cooler? Nope the cooler and lines are dry on the outside. But the whole front is wet with oil. It even whicks around and gets blown on my right boot and the front engine mounts are covered as well.

Any thoughts?

[Bluegreen]

[TwoTired]

Clean it off.  Spray with foot powder, take a short ride/warm up and note the source of the weeping.

[Bluegreen]

Thanks TT, it really looks like head gasket at this point but like I said no white smoke or anything. That being said I should probably follow your advice. I just don't know where else it could come from.

[bwaller]

It likely is the head gasket, but don't overlook the six sealing rubbers between the cyl head & cover. There are two in the front.

[Bluegreen]

It likely is the head gasket, but don't overlook the six sealing rubbers between the cyl head & cover. There are two in the front.

You think I might just be able to re torque it? Or am I day dreaming?

 I do have a brand new MLS head gasket on the bench.

[HotCarl73]

the front of my 750 k3 looked like that. the previous owner told me it was the head gasket. i cleaned it up and found that the head gasket did have a very slight weep, but oil was pouring out of the tachometer seal and down the front of the engine. i wrapped some teflon around the end of the tach cable to seal it up while i waited for a tach seal to get here. i don't know if that helps you with the 550, but you should definitely start with a thorough cleaning and see where the oil is really coming from. the wind blows it all over the place. before i cleaned it, it looked like it could have been the valve cover gasket, head gasket, or cylinder base gasket. i thought my engine was gonna have to be torn down, but it was just a 5 dollar seal that took 2 minutes to replace. good luck.

[bwaller]

That's an oily mess. Try some S100 or such & a pressure washer to clean it before up checking the source of the leak.

I have never sealed a head gskt. leak by re-torquing. Those sealing pucks can allow a sizeable oil leak and are easier to change than pulling the head, but take some time to pinpoint.

I have an MLS gasket too and with proper surfaces, should be the cats ass. I really like the viton coated steel base gaskets. They help building a comp engine and can be stacked. The nice thing about steel, like copper, they won't compress, but the MLS has the added benefit of the viton coating.