Cylinder head oil leak
Posted: 13 Sep 2019 09:09
Morning folks!
I have just started preparing my 1978 Morini 500W for this year's Moto Piston Rally (starts 21st September) and I was a bit concerned to see oil weeping from both cylinder head gaskets. Not a major leak, but enough to have caused a couple of drips from the edge of both the top barrel fins. You can see the edge of the head gasket quite easily with a light and it looks oily all the way round. I suspect it's been leaking for a while and I've only just noticed.
I rebuilt the engine and gearbox a couple of years ago and the cylinder heads were very lightly skimmed, they were almost perfectly flat anyway. New gaskets of course. Since then the bike has done two Piston Rallies and plenty of other trips without any problems. Yesterday I checked the compressions, which were equal at 170psi. I also checked the valve clearances which hadn't moved and then took the valve gear off and checked the head nuts, which were up to torque. I considered backing off the nuts and re-torquing them, but decided not to - there is often a lot to be said for leaving well alone!
Any opinions? My feeling is that this is very unlikely to cause any problems. I can take the heads off in the winter at my leisure and see if I can figure out what's going on. I think this is probably just a weep from the pushrod tunnels or somewhere and at worst it's just a bit annoying. What do you think?
I do have a plan B in that I could take my Guzzi V50. That bike has never done a Piston Rally, so it could be fun anyway. It's just that I know how well the Morini is suited to those mountain roads!
Kind regards,
Joe.
I have just started preparing my 1978 Morini 500W for this year's Moto Piston Rally (starts 21st September) and I was a bit concerned to see oil weeping from both cylinder head gaskets. Not a major leak, but enough to have caused a couple of drips from the edge of both the top barrel fins. You can see the edge of the head gasket quite easily with a light and it looks oily all the way round. I suspect it's been leaking for a while and I've only just noticed.
I rebuilt the engine and gearbox a couple of years ago and the cylinder heads were very lightly skimmed, they were almost perfectly flat anyway. New gaskets of course. Since then the bike has done two Piston Rallies and plenty of other trips without any problems. Yesterday I checked the compressions, which were equal at 170psi. I also checked the valve clearances which hadn't moved and then took the valve gear off and checked the head nuts, which were up to torque. I considered backing off the nuts and re-torquing them, but decided not to - there is often a lot to be said for leaving well alone!
Any opinions? My feeling is that this is very unlikely to cause any problems. I can take the heads off in the winter at my leisure and see if I can figure out what's going on. I think this is probably just a weep from the pushrod tunnels or somewhere and at worst it's just a bit annoying. What do you think?
I do have a plan B in that I could take my Guzzi V50. That bike has never done a Piston Rally, so it could be fun anyway. It's just that I know how well the Morini is suited to those mountain roads!
Kind regards,
Joe.