Bbk oil leak support group

[thxcuz]

I installed my bbk and now I'm leaking oil. I did some searching and I found out this is common. I opened my valve cover to see a little oil in it but not as much as had been dripping out of my engine.
I'm guessing I messed up one of the gaskets by over tightening the bolts on the engine studs.
I don't have a torque wrench...maybe I didn't tighten them enough. They were on pretty tight when I took them off.
It would be nice if I didn't have to tear into the engine again and order new gaskets.

For those of you who had this problem before, what was your solution?

Was it just a crushed gasket, misaligned rings? Or was it something worse?

[Deleted]

Post some pictures.

[humanshield]

The gasket I would suspect most would be the paper base gasket.

But always check the simple stuff first. Valve cover gasket for example. If it turns out not to be the easy stuff...

Don't fret...just yank it back apart, find where you went wrong and fix it.

When I was trying the Big Valve Head thing, I think I did 5 complete tear downs, rebuilds and test runs one day.
I'm sure some have done more than that in a day...but it'll wear ya out.
....and it STILL didn't work.

You're gonna LOVE the scooter with the BBK. It's worth the trouble

[scott7]

I would clean all the oil off the top end of engine real good with brake cleaner. Then run the scooter for a few minutes ,shut it off and check and see what gasket it is leaking from .

[thxcuz]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I ordered some more gaskets. I have a spare 39mm base gasket. Could I cut the piston hole bigger and use that?

[90GTVert]

You should be able to use a razor knife of some sort to mod the base gasket. Make sure both surfaces are clean prior to install.

[thxcuz]

Ah crimeny...I neglected to re install the dowel pins. I put them aside on my work bench so I wouldn't lose them.
I just saw them on my workbench this morning. Could that be why it's leaking?

Refresh my memory where they go. Upper left, lower right studs looking from the back? Do the go in before or after I install the cylinder?

[Deleted]

I couldn't say if this is the culprit, but there are bigger holes in the cylinder/engine, cylinder/head where they fit. I use torgue wrench for tightening (loosen wrench after use).

[humanshield]

Bingo!

Oil flows up those holes and to the rocker arms.  The sleeves are needed to form a strong seal between the head / Cylinder and case.

I think you just solved your own problem

Try to get one of those Inch/lbs torque wrenches to torque the head on to the correct torque.  I think you can see how important that is now.

[Fox]

Shoot the gaskets with brake cleaner real good to remove the oil and then once dry, coat both sides with copper spray and reinstall with the locating dowels. Then if you feel like it, reinstall the intake, carb and exhaust without the fan shrouds and let it idle for a few minutes to check for leaks prior to buttoning it all up.

The copper spray tacks up after 5-10 minutes or so. It's good stuff. I hang the gaskets on a wire hook so I can spray both sides at once.

[thxcuz]

The plot thickens. I got a cheapo torque wrench from harbor freight today and set it to 5 foot lbs and apparently the bolts weren't even that tight. I'm wondering if I didn't have the bolts tight enough aND that is part of the issue.

I have jury duty this Monday and Tuesday (which is my weekend) so I won't have time to investigate further until next week.

I'll keep you posted.

Until then I'm scooterless. On the up side it's going to rain a lot so I wouldn't get much ringing in anyway

[katastroff]

Slap on some Harley Davidson stickers on it and let it rip oil for authenticity.

[thxcuz]

And the hits just keep on comin..
Stupid harbor freight torque wrench is garbage. I'm set at 5 foot lbs and it never clicks. Next thing you know I crack my rocker assembly.

I can return the wrench but I need a new assembly. Maybe I can borrow someone's wrench

I wonder if I can jb weld it?

[thxcuz]

Nooe. Jb weld won't cut it. I need a new assembly. Looks like a trip to the scooter shop is in order

[katastroff]

If you're gonna go the cheap road for a torque wrench, get one like this. Even if its not accurate to the 0.00000000001 pound, you'll still have a pretty good idea of where you're standing at.