Found leak - almost

[Doug in San Diego]

Hello all

For those who have seen my threads. I had a mystery leak after a Cam install

Well I took it apart. Re-torqued head bolts (they were already fine)

Ran it - Few drips

Cleaned it- Removed plastic shroud

Ran it - few drips (literally 2 hanging drops on the bottom of engine)

It looks like it is coming from the underside of the crankcase - right next to the oil plug. It appears that there is a gasket where the fan side half of the engine joins the other side.

The leak is definitely not coming from the top of the engine (cylinder, head, valve cover clean as a whistle)

I applied a little pressure to the 3 bolts on the fan side of the engine.

I can't run it again (kids asleep) but I thought I would give an update to the leak

I am actually pleased that the top of the engine is solid. I have never heard of a leak down on the bottom of the engine though

I don't really see how I could fix that (maybe the torque on the bolts did the trick)

Doug

[Rebel]

It is possible that torquing the bolts did fix it. You should probably look for any other case bolts that might need a little snugging down and make sure it is not coming from your oil drain plug. In the past it was not uncommon to see leaks from the crank case on a lot of motorcycle motors, especially the British ones, a running joke was that if your Norton or BSA was not leaking you better put some oil in it because it was empty. The Japanese have not had as much problem with oil leaks like that.

[xs650]

Dec 17, 2009 17:26:30 GMT -5 Rebel said:

a running joke was that if your Norton or BSA was not leaking you better put some oil in it because it was empty. The Japanese have not had as much problem with oil leaks like that.

In the 1960s I worked with a guy that had a 441cc BSA Victim. Another co-worker had a wife that worked for the county, so she mailed the BSA owner a very official looking offer on county letterhead for a job oiling county roads.