SuzukiSavage.com - oil leak!

txhutch

Ex Member

oil leak!
08/18/04 at 10:57:26

Noticed yesterday that I've got an oil leak coming off the cylinder. The head was sealed by the dealer about a year ago, and oil seems to be coming out of through the air passage on the right (from rider's position) of the cylinder, near the top. There's oil on the front and back of the cylinder. It's not a lot of oil; just a few drops, but it makes a mess! What's gone wrong, and what do I do now? Undecided

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Jon Guest	Re: oil leak! Reply #1 - 08/18/04 at 11:28:52 > .. oil leak coming off the cylinder. The head was > sealed by the dealer about a year ago Most likely the 'head' didn't need sealing because the common leak source on this engine is a plug covering a wrench access hole up top. Greg_650 might have a photo of the culprit.
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Savage_Greg Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Don't go around your ass to reach your elbow... Posts: 7844 SW Washington State Gender:	Re: oil leak! Reply #2 - 08/19/04 at 08:48:42 I'm on lunch right now, but I'll upload one so that I can post it here, later.
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Savage_Greg

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Re: oil leak!
Reply #3 - 08/19/04 at 14:26:01

The famous "Savage Plug Leak" (assuming that we are talking about the same thing) comes from under the head cover and right over the right front head nut. In the opening to the left of the header pipe when looking from the front.

When it happened on ours it was after the dealer's "1000 mile" check-up, and what is even better when I opened my spouse's up the plug wasn't all the way seated in the head anyway. They have to remove the plug to torque the head nut during the initial service.

Here is a shot of when I fixed hers and it also shows the additional silicone rubber that I used on the plug.

Admin has taken the liberty to resize and host picture for Greg.

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Savage_Greg Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Don't go around your ass to reach your elbow... Posts: 7844 SW Washington State Gender:	Re: oil leak! Reply #4 - 08/19/04 at 14:27:53 Sorry I didn't expect the image to be that large.
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Susan Serious Thumper 2004 No Login Offline Been AWOL but I'm back... Posts: 682 Eastern PA Gender:	Re: oil leak! Reply #5 - 08/19/04 at 18:46:43 Savage_Greg wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:08: Sorry I didn't expect the image to be that large. Don't need glasses to see it anyway!
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AL_DOWN_UNDER Ex Member	Re: oil leak! Reply #6 - 08/19/04 at 22:48:18 WHY ARE THESE PAGES SO WIDE
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Jon Guest	Re: oil leak! Reply #7 - 08/20/04 at 00:15:31 Greg, do you have a hot tank? I assume you took the head off and completely apart, then you must have tanked it to get it so clean? What did you use as an assemble grease on the cam?
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Savage_Greg

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Re: oil leak!
Reply #8 - 08/20/04 at 01:58:10

The pages are so wide because some idiot posted a link to a photo that is 1000 pixels wide. That idiot should have posted one that is 640 or less. Now all the posts follow that dimension.

As for the hot tank....No. The engine was pretty clean on the inside with just the discoloring from heat around the exhaust valves. The rest is the result of some elbow grease and aluminum paint that my spouse wanted for a treatment on her head (her cylinder is black)

That is regular engine assembly grease on the cam. I always use that when putting it back together.

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txhutch

Ex Member

Re: oil leak!
Reply #9 - 08/24/04 at 10:04:35

Thanks for the info -- which leads to two new questions:
1) Is this something I have to fix or can I just live with it? Is it going to get worse?
2) How labor intensive is it going to be to fix this?

By the way - I've already spoken to the dealer - they are worthless when it comes to maintenance issues. I hope everyone else has better support from their dealerships.

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the mysterious johnh YaBB Administrator Offline thump thump.... Posts: 9064 The Land of SuzukiSavage.com Gender:	Re: oil leak! Reply #10 - 08/24/04 at 10:38:17 Savage_Greg wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:08: Sorry I didn't expect the image to be that large. No problem, I have resized and hosted the picture for you.
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Munson_kl279 Ex Member	Re: oil leak! Reply #11 - 08/24/04 at 11:06:00 [quote/] By the way - I've already spoken to the dealer - they are worthless when it comes to maintenance issues. I hope everyone else has better support from their dealerships. [/quote] Atleast you can take your's to a deal. I have an '86 and all the dealers around me will not touch anything older than a '96!
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ObviousMan

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Re: oil leak!
Reply #12 - 08/24/04 at 11:55:37

> Atleast you can take your's to a deal. I have an '86
> and all the dealers around me will not touch anything
> older than a '96!

You might politely explain to the dimwits that, except for the 4-speed transmission in the 80's bikes, the LS650 is essentially the same mechanically for all years. Parts will interchange and everything, it's a miracle.

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Savage_Rob

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Re: oil leak!
Reply #13 - 08/24/04 at 12:52:41

Hmm, I heard this was fixed in like 2001/2002. Does anyone know if this affects all Savages prior to that or only some of them? I bought a used '98 model a little over a month ago with 1650 miles on it and it does not leak. That makes me wonder if it was fixed, never leaked, or never had the maintenance done that might start the leak. Hmmmmmmmm.

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Munson_kl279

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Re: oil leak!
Reply #14 - 08/24/04 at 13:01:42

You might politely explain to the dimwits that, except for the 4-speed transmission in the 80's bikes, the LS650 is essentially the same mechanically for all years. Parts will interchange and everything, it's a miracle.

This is something I've found out recently, but what kills me is that I've been trying to get an engine guard for mine and I can't seem to find one. When I finally found one from a dealer in NY they told me that parts only go back 3 years!

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