I bought a 2007 s40 that was said to have a blown head gasket.
It has almost 7900 miles on it. After I pulled the engine and got
to looking at it I'm starting to think that it might be that plug that
I keep reading about here on this site. Or that the upper and lower
head joint seal is leaking. The head gasket looks to clean and all the
oil seems to be coming from the top of the head. The two cavities
on top are saturated with oil as are the fins above and below the
head gasket. I really don't want to mess with the head gasket if
I don't have to. I'd much rather pull the top part of the head, fix
the plug, retorque the head, check cam, chain & tentioner, and
reseal the top back on. I have lots of pictures to post but apparantly
I don't get to post any. I was hoping to get the best ones up so I
can get good assisments from you all who care to give one.
I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

Thanks: Wiley  

Most likely your head gasket is fine......we really don't have a documented head gasket failure.

The head plug fails, the left front cylinder stud has a copper washer and can leak oil if the seal is not good, and the gasket material between the cylinder head cap and cylinder head can leak.  Also the nuts under the intake and exhaust ports can weep oil.

Do this and test for where the leak could be....although it most likely won't show a head plug leak, as I suspect the pressure will push the plug into place and the leak will not show.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1335737953

We don't seem to talk about Versy's head plug very much. For what it is worth, when I remove the cap on mine, leaking or not one of those will go in. Preventive maintenance?

So I see.
Your cams look pretty good also.

norm92de wrote on 10/06/15 at 15:05:15:


They did (sort of)....the head nut is underneath that plug.  I can't say for sure why that head stud is shorter than the rest....and why there is an air space in that location....but I would guess that it is to allow the exhaust port to cool and not transfer so much heat to the rest of the head.

The guy I bought it from said he took it to a shop and was told
it was the head gasket and wanted close to $1,000.00 to fix
it. He lives in the same complex as I do and I run into him one day
and asked if he had been riding his bike since we've had nice
weather, that's when he told me about it and that he was going
to put it on Craigs list for $500.00, said he had no way or know how
to fix it himself. So I told him I'd buy it. I was a mechanic in the
Army so I'm up to fixing it. I just don't have a compression gage
or any type of shop to do this in, the engine is on my kitchen floor.

Wiley wrote on 10/06/15 at 13:37:47:


Actually, no need to upload photos of an oil leak, this site has plenty of those photos.
Do a Google search with this:

site:suzukisavage.com oil leak

Then click "Images". Then just find the leak that looks like yours, and follow that to the thread on what was done about it.

Oil leaks on this machine are typically easy to fix, with the plug cap leak being the most time consuming (but not difficult).
The big three leaks, off the top of my head:
1) Head plug.
2) Front head stud.
3) The "Wait, did I forget to tighten the fron pegs?" leak.