Valve cover leak fix ideas?
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 10:25 am
So I have been riding my new V-strom exclusively because of a persistent leak on the XJ that I think is coming from the valve cover gasket. I posted before some troubles in getting the cover to compress the seal, and I bought brand new (updated design to be thicker) bolt seals, but I think I am still not getting enough compression to completely seal. I read somewhere that you can put some yamabond in the groove to hold the valve cover gasket and provide a bit more compression, but I don't want to put yamabond into the groove where I won't be able to scrape it out easily. I also don't want to put some yamabond on the head side, because if I don't get a nice even height bead, then I might cause another leak.
So my new idea is to put some yamabond on the top side of the bolt gaskets to make them a bit thicker than they already are. The gaskets do seal on top, but they also seal around the bolt, not just under the head, so it seems that this could work.
Any thoughts or pitfalls you see in doing this? I will probably do it tonight so I can reassemble and test tomorrow.
So my new idea is to put some yamabond on the top side of the bolt gaskets to make them a bit thicker than they already are. The gaskets do seal on top, but they also seal around the bolt, not just under the head, so it seems that this could work.
Any thoughts or pitfalls you see in doing this? I will probably do it tonight so I can reassemble and test tomorrow.