Very odd. All I can say is to make sure that the mating surfaces are flat. also make sure that the blind holes in the crankcase where the head bolts screw into are clean. The manual specs using grease on the threads and it's possible that there may be some residual grease in the bolt hole that is 'hydraulic-ing' the bolt when it is installed and giving a false torque reading. Bill uses a fiber head gasket and it has worked very well for me and for many others so I don't think that it is the source of your problems...keep looking.

At this point a very close inspection of the head gasket on tear down should point you in the right direction.

 

OK, I have a little experience with high comp heads, here are my suggestions....

When you get the head off, you need to find out if it is uneven or the cylinder top is uneven. I don't know the best way for this, google it.... or take them both to a machine shop and let them do it, if they are uneven, they can then take a few mm off to make them flat.

When you assemble the engine, use a lot of copper based gasket material on the gasket, it will fill in and stick the mating surfaces together.

Clean the bolts & area of seating good before reinstallation. Check your torque wrench. Make sure all the bolts are installed and rotate the final tightening ft-lbs in 10 ft-lbs increments.

I can't remember, but if some of the head bolts are different lenghts, be sure and figure out what goes where as they may have been installed in the wrong holes.

 

Carefully inspect the gaskets, old and new.

 

Thanks a lot for your comments and feedback, i will update what went wrong but it will take a while, i ordered new sets of gaskets from Bill and it will take some time to reach here, probably couple of weeks.

Just want to check, i had water in the engine a couple of times now, is this bad for the engine in the long term? will it cause reliability issues later? i really hope i get it right the next round of installation.

 

At this point I'm willing to bet you just need those gaskets replaced, but definitely do check the evenness of the cylinder head surface, as suggested. As for the water getting into the oil. I wouldn't worry about it too awfully much. I think as long as you take care of the issue now you should be ok, assuming that only a little water leaked into the oil, and that you didn't ride more than a few hundred miles like that. I mean the alternatives are to a.) trash the whole project and forget it, or b.) replace or rebuild the entire engine. I don't think either of those makes any sense for you at this point lol. But yea it is probably only a small amount of water and I'd say it should be okay, as long as the leak is fixed and the oil is changed.

 

Ok, here's the story, i loaded the bike on my truck today and sent it to the tech who installed the BB331 Kit, the milky engine window screen according to him is just moisture and nothing to worry about. After the oil settles, no trace of water can be found. Then when i open up the radiator cap and there is some oil sludge on the surface of the coolant, he says its coolant additive. He swears there is no leak. But he did acknowledge i have a cooling system problem which he still trying to solve, so i left the bike there for him to look into it.

So my question is, is there really a leak or not? Im still losing oil which the tech says its normal for a big bore upgrade. He says if there is a leak, there will be clear indication of water in the engine and water will come out from the exhaust when the engine starts.

hope someone can help me out here, he even suggested putting on a bigger radiator!! Im quite confused right now. Should i still go ahead and change the head gaskets since i've already ordered them? Im in need of good advise from you guys here.

 

I can't comment on the rest of your post, but I have never heard of ANYONE on these forums needing a radiator upgrade to run their big bore kit! Infact, I have never even heard the fan come on with my big bore kit and I run my bike HARD!

Heat should NOT be an issue, even with a 351cc kit.

 

Okay you are losing WAY too much oil, you are NOT supposed to have any sort of stuff floating in the radiator. If the tech installed the kit, he messed up. I don't know if he ripped a gasket or didn't line things up right but there is definitely a problem. You don't need a new radiator, I run in 110 degree desert heat in bumper to bumper traffic and the fan has only come on ONCE, and I used my OLD coolant from my 250. Don't be bamboozled.

 

I'm in agreement with the others here. Losing oil is no good. Even if the rings haven't fully seated yet you shouldn't be loosing that much. Plus the crap in the radiator is NOT additive. Additive would mix with the coolant and be invisible.

There may be coolant going into the oil, but he IS right about one thing -- if there was enough of it, you'd see a vapor coming out of the tailpipe while it was running, because once the motor heats up, it'll boil the moisture out of the system.

Rob

 

I get a little oil in my radiator. Always have, even before big bore. I don't know where its coming from. Its not right. But it's just the slightest amount and I'm not worrying too much about it.

On the other hand, any milky in the sight glass or oil change is NOT right. It could be condensation, but I'd be su****ious of this. I ruined the water pump in my KLR last year and water leaked through the seal into the oil. The sight glass was milky, and would clear up, but there was clearly a leak that shouldn't be there!

Mechanics - can this poster do some kind of pressure or leak down test to help identify where the leak is at.