So, I'm just now re-assempling the bike after re-installing a brand spanking new head plug! Wow - I just love that new head plug smell!  

A few observations: It's fricking cold in Chicago!! What I've been doing to stay warm in my unheated garage is this: I would budget an hour to identify and twist bolts on my head cover - but before I actually start work, I would run an errand in my cage (groceries, beer run, etc). As soon as I park the cage back in the garage I would pop the hood an turn on my cheap box fan to blow the heat from my cage V8 towards "ground zero" - (the part of the garage that the Savaged has marked as her territory with 10w40).  

This warms the garage up about 10 degrees (F) - enough for me to work without gloves on.  After about three of these sessions, I was able to get the headcover off, clean the head, re-seal it and put 5 bolts in to hold the headcover down while the RTV cures. Cuz it's cold, I was going let the sealant set for about 3 days before I torque down the bolts and re-install the upper motor mount.

I've got the headcover on good, but I've only slightly wrench tightened 5 bolts down  (each corner, and the one up top). I did pat the headcover down with a rubber mallet until I got that "solid" sound.

Can the sealant set up when it's below freezing in the garage?  The Permatex instructions just said it will take longer to cure when colder, but did not list ideal tempature ranges.
I'm using Permatex 26B "Red".

Another observation: I used a spray gasket remover to get the old grey sealent off - works great, but this stuff is very caustic - I was holding the bottom of the head cover  with my left hand and my hand was laying in a puddle of this stuff - it burned like someone put a cigar out on my hand - no  injuries, but I'll be carefull not to store this stuff next to my spray deoderant

That's the one thing I don't miss about the north.Love all that work just for that stupid cap.

My only question is how do you know what it feels like to have a cigar put out in your hand?

$50 delivered, hook to the tank off your gas BBQ.

Anytime you burn anything oxygen is consumed, this heater is labeled for outdoor use, it does not have ODS oxygen depletion sensor. Don't want to lose anybody.

Thanks for pointing that out - I should be OK - I only used a pencil line of sealant, and I did tighten the bolts down, however I did not use a torqe wrench - my torque  wrench only goes down to 10lbs.  

1st2know wrote on 12/30/07 at 19:08:15:

pssst don't tell anybody but I don't use one either on those head cover bolts - I use a little shorty wrench about 3 inches long - those are very smooth machined surfaces that do not hold any oil presure - likely the bigger risk is too tight and twisting them off

gj859 wrote on 12/30/07 at 17:54:22:

Very true.  The oxygen gets consumed just the same, but the biggest problem in a confined space is not a lack of O₂, but an abundance of CO, which I believe actually settles near the floor...right where you are working on your bike.  Can you say, "odorless and tasteless"?

Savage_Greg wrote on 12/31/07 at 06:58:02:


Had an actual experience with one of those exact heaters, and our propane camp stove during the recent ice storm and power outage down here a couple of weeks ago.

Wife had been cooking on the stove for about an hour, and I had the radiant/catalytic heater running in the living room at the same time for a bit longer. Together the devices were producing maybe 25,000-30,000 BTU.

I felt the least bit dizzy, and mentioned it to the wife. Within a couple of minutes she was short of breath and her face color was changing (she's very prone to that anyways.) I figured our right away that it was Carbon Monoxide poisoning, and shut them off and threw the doors open for a while.

Surprisingly, with propane, unlike a vehicle exhaust, the deadly gas truly is "odorless and tasteless." And as I've since learned, you can go from our "dizzy and short of breath" symptoms to dead in a few minutes. So... DO be CAREFUL with those radiant propane space heaters in a well sealed enclosure like your home.

OTOH, The good thing about them is; I've used that same heater in my drafty old barn for years without an problem. And the nice thing about the radiant heater over a convection heater; is that it will warm you from 10-15 feet away, no matter what the air temp in the building is. Radiant heat warms the objects it radiates the heat too, and doesn't have to warm the whole building.