LH side leaking oil from the valve cover side

[zappa916]

Greetings,

So I took off the valve cover to do the valves on my 2001 R1150R and for the life of me I cant stop the oil leak from the side. I've tried 6 times to button up the cover, each time rotating the grommet which ever way to seal up.

The round grommet itself while having slight impressions where it was squashed up against the head, is still malleable and soft. However i have noticed a slight lip around the outside diameter. Maybe it's squashed to the point of no recovery???

Is there a trick to putting these things on, or should I just bite the bullet and get a new grommet?
What am i doing wrong?

 

[albatross]

Zappa
don’t forget the rubber is 20 yrs Old . I replaced at some stage all the head over gaskets in one go....
Motorworks do the ring rubber gasket for £4,20 and the large rubber gasket for £15.20

 

[oblertone]

I’m not sure which ‘grommet’ you’re referring to but most oil leaks after taking the cover off seem to come from the rubber seal in the plug tunnel which can get nipped on reinstallation.

 

[zappa916]

I’m not sure which ‘grommet’ you’re referring to but most oil leaks after taking the cover off seem to come from the rubber seal in the plug tunnel which can get nipped on reinstallation.

Yes, rubber seal plug tunnel. I call it a grommet.

Back to my question. Is there a trick to install to prevent "nipping"?

 

[zappa916]

Zappa
don’t forget the rubber is 20 yrs Old . I replaced at some stage all the head over gaskets in one go....
Motorworks do the ring rubber gasket for £4,20 and the large rubber gasket for £15.20

very true. At some stage i'll replace all the rubbers on the cover.

 

[Wrigsby1]

Also there's a big difference between a weep from tired gaskets and misfitting the plug rubber... I have experience.... Oil pissing out if you make a hash of it... Only done it once...