Head Gasket

[oldskiddy]

Hi

How do you know if your head gasket has gone?
My bike sounds as though its puffing on the right hand side. Cant think of anything else.


Thanks

 

[DrFarkoff]

If it's "puffing" it must be bad

Better to check

Throttle body

Exhaust

Lamda probe etc etc

Spray WD40 around it but Be careful if it's hot!!! WD40 vapour is flammable with an ignition source!!!

If it;s the head gasket blowing it will blow the WD40 away from the motor

But You should see signs of oil or soot

 

[Sooty09]

Your coolant level drops, Oh sorry wrong section.
The noise could be a loose spark plug, blowing exhaust at the head joint or a loose lamba probe. I don't think head gaskets are a common problem on Oil heads.
A simple check is to mix a strong washing up liquid/water solution and brush it round the head joint area onto a cool engine, Fire up and see if any bubbles blow out. Its not very conclusive as a large area of head gasket is between the combustion chamber and cam chain tunnel.
If you find nothing obvious a compression tester is required, a dealer will do this check for a charge.
Don't forget rinse off the washing up liquid.

 

[oldskiddy]

Coolants ok

Plugs all tight, exhaust all ok.
I will check compression in morning, on way to dover then Garmisch.
F**k knows might just be me. Good test ride to Germany will fix it.


Olds

 

[Bendy toy]

If the head gasket has failed, riding the bike is one sure way to seriously damage the joint face. More likely its an exhaust leak somewhere but rule out the HG before running it for too long.

 

[oldskiddy]

Yeah your right I need a second opinion.
Seems to run ok though.

 

[duckspeed]

Have a listen around the motor with a piece of pipe to the lug hole..Don't burn the back of your paw on the exhausts though..........

 

[Pukmeister]

Check both spark plugs tight, exhaust header joint tight, whip off rocker cover and check head holding down studs/nuts correctly torqued/angle tightened.