oil leak

[cowboytk]

hello guys, i wanted to touch base with an oil leak i discovered this morning. I rode in to school this morning 35-40 mile trip, and i dont race my bike or drive it balls out, i noticed a small stream of oil from the weep hole on the left side of the motor, the oil feels and looks fine, has a small odor of gas but goes away quickly. now before i goto the local yami shop and put her in for work, how bad is this, im uber paranoid with this bike and my mechanical knowledge has seemed to leave me. please advise what to do, can it wait till i save up some $$$ (approximately a week or two)..this is not a picture of my motor but it looks similar..

 

[champion221elite]

Have you washed your bike recently? Pretty sure that weep hole connects to the area where your sparkplug is inserted.

It's purpose is to drain away water that gets in there. Any chance the liquid you noticed was just water?

 

[616ah]

You say it smells of gasoline? Is it possible there might be a loose spark plug? If so, compression could force some fuel up past the spark plug threads. Might be good to check it out pdq. Loose spark plugs rattling up and down wear the threads in the cyl head badly before they eject...

 

[cowboytk]

i have not washed my bike recently but it has been foggy recently, so that may be the cause..as for the spark plug i sure as heck hope not they were just changed by a dealer..

 

[BamBam77]

i have not washed my bike recently but it has been foggy recently, so that may be the cause..as for the spark plug i sure as heck hope not they were just changed by a dealer..

The last thing done is the first to be checked
Wouldn't hurt to check their work:thumbup:

 

[cowboytk]

checked today and they were not loose at all..i forgot to mention and dont know if this has anything to do with it but i put the leos on several months ago and still have not tuned her..so i know shes running pig rich

 

[asosa1127]

My bikes been having this leak on the same side as yours but its in between the oil filter and engine...coming from the top. Could anyone help me with this please?

 

[asosa1127]

Heres a pic of the leak
View attachment 34198

 

[kengyy]

i have the same problem. oil leaks out from the hole at 50k miles. I check the spark plugs. it seems like there is engine oil at two of the spark plug at cylinder 1 and 2. can anyone please help me understand the problem? thank you.

 

[Downs]

i have not washed my bike recently but it has been foggy recently, so that may be the cause..as for the spark plug i sure as heck hope not they were just changed by a dealer..

Dealers are usually not that great at QC it seems sometimes.

My guess is a weepy valve cover gasket is letting a little oil into the sparkplug towers then it's coming out of that drain hole. Those drain holes go to the sparkplug recesses.

You can pull the spark plug caps and look down in there and see if you have oil leakage there which I think you will.

If you do you have three options.

1)cinch down the valve cover bolts a little. Torque specs on these are very low around 7 ft lbs of torque so don't over do them or you'll snap them off.

2)replace the valve cover gasket/o-ring with a new one.

3)Ignore it. It dosen't look like it's enough to cause any issues just wipe it off every once in a while.

Not sure where New Braunfels is at in relation to Saginaw (fort Worth) but I'd be willing to take a look at it if you are close enough to stop by my house.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Dealers are usually not that great at QC it seems sometimes.

My guess is a weepy valve cover gasket is letting a little oil into the sparkplug towers then it's coming out of that drain hole. Those drain holes go to the sparkplug recesses.

You can pull the spark plug caps and look down in there and see if you have oil leakage there which I think you will.

If you do you have three options.

1)cinch down the valve cover bolts a little. Torque specs on these are very low around 7 ft lbs of torque so don't over do them or you'll snap them off.

2)replace the valve cover gasket/o-ring with a new one.

3)Ignore it. It dosen't look like it's enough to cause any issues just wipe it off every once in a while.

Not sure where New Braunfels is at in relation to Saginaw (fort Worth) but I'd be willing to take a look at it if you are close enough to stop by my house.

+1 on the above.

 

[Calmingdragon]

Thanks for the info on this. I just did a valve job on my FZ6 and a significant amount of oil is coming from this hold. My guess is that I need to get back in and check to make sure the gasket seated right. If this doesn't fix it does anyone have any other ideas what might be happening here?

 

[Solarservant]

My bike does the same thing. Since the leak was only a few drops after a ride, I never gave it much thought. Assumed it must be some kind of weep hole as well, since it was not threaded... Thanks for the info here.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Thanks for the info on this. I just did a valve job on my FZ6 and a significant amount of oil is coming from this hold. My guess is that I need to get back in and check to make sure the gasket seated right. If this doesn't fix it does anyone have any other ideas what might be happening here?

A slight bit of gas/oil might be a loose spark plug...

If you just had the top end off, I strongly suspect the valve cover gasket moved when installing it. I'd re-check the spark plug torque as you'll be there anyway.

My shop manual states to replace it with a new gasket (I believe its rubber). You can usually re-use it but I suspect its now crunched up somewhere (it'll be very visable once the covers off).

I also noticed 4 Guides near the spark plug holes to help align the middle strip of the valve cover gasket. Perhaps that part moved upon re-assembly.

Please post what you find, Good luck...