I just tightened the head bolts on my '01 as per the mx schedule.  The engine was not leaking any oil when I started the job.

I pulled the plug out to access one of the head bolts, cleaned it up, cleaned the hole up, and popped it back into place.  I used ThreeBond Liquid Gasket 1104 to seal the plug.  I bought some from the Suzuki dealer, on his recommendation, when I last removed said plug for the bike's 600 mile mx.

I slapped 'er back together and took 'er for a spin.  It didn't take long for the tell-tale oil gusher to start up.  "DRAT" said I!  I said it loud and lustily.

I'm going to pick up a new plug from the dealer tomorrow.

QUESTION:  How many removal/replacement cycles can these plugs usually take before they are toast?

BTW, I'm going to use Permatex Ultra Copper to seal the new plug.  The ThreeBond stuff is just too hard to clean off.

With 600 miles Your plug should be like new. I use either the recomended Suzuki stuff /pretty expensive/ or Permatex ultra gray. No problems so far. The trick is to degrease everything meticulosly. Let the sealant stay overnight and You will be happy.

I pulled out the offending plug today.  It was in there really snug, even though it had been in there for less than two weeks.  I had to tug pretty hard on it.

I'm guessing (from inspection of the plug's condition) that I was remiss in not removing all of the old sealer (ThreeBond Liquid Gasket 1104) that was on the plug from the last time I did this job.  In my defense, however, I will say that it is near impossible to get all of this stuff off of the rubber.

I'll slap her back together tomorrow (using a new plug [unfortunately, it is the old design]) using Permatex Ultra-Copper.  If you don't hear back from me on this thread, it means there are no leaks (i.e., no news is good news).