Valve Cover Gasket Remove & Replace

Quick shout out: do I need to put a slight film of motor oil on new valve cover gaskets and grommets before slotting them home?

I'm assuming that cleaning the obvious places [covered gaps, stuff in the gasket groves, etc.] is a good idea.

Any suggestions before I take the final plunge?

Once this is done, it's off to my throttle-body sync and throttle cable inspection...

Fun weekend in store!

NBG

Nope, just put 'em on dry.

Pete

OK - more questions:  Is this normal?  Source of panic?  From under my right valve cover...

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Nah, as I said in the email, that is evidence of Mayonaise forming. You need to get the bike hotter, ride harder and for longer.. Its this shit dripping into the cam weirs that kills the tappets!

Pete

Do I need to replace the tappets? 'Cause I have no idea how to do that... or that they even existed until now.   

No. Ride it like you stole it. Get it hot & bothered and you'll be OK.   

Heh - I can do that.   

Pete Roper wrote:

Nah, as I said in the email, that is evidence of Mayonaise forming. You need to get the bike hotter, ride harder and for longer.. Its this shit dripping into the cam weirs that kills the tappets!

Pete

I wonder if Mark's maps will help a bit as the engine runs a bit warmer.

NBG already has one of my maps. It's the short daily commute on those cold mornings I reckon.

Letting it warm up a bit before the commute should help.

When I do a short trip in cold weather, I put my hands on the front of the rocker covers after the ride with the engine still idling. If I can keep me hand there without getting burned, I let it idle some more.

Mayo is the product of condensation when hot oil spray with some water content meets a cool metal part, and from my observations that is what seems to happen under the front of these covers. Mayo starts in the front and propagates into moving parts if not removed by hot oil.

I have installed a dipstick thermometer as well, it's easy to check oil temp after stopping (and oil temp in sump seems to be quite stable, have not tested much in rain).


Svein

Ride that thing like a leather mini-skirt clad heavy metal slut!!!!!!!!!   

If the engine oil is corrupted, is it illogical to suspect the gear/final drive oil could be too?

If so, what to install?

no on the final and trans oil are separate the final can suck water through the breather in some extreme wet though....you have to have a bad breather or work at it a bit...I ride in a lot of cold and a lot of rain, and I have never had an ingress issue on the bikes but some have... the breather mod is common for the carc on stelvios

What Uzi said.

If it's been 12 months since last change, it wouldn't hurt to change gearbox and bevel box oil too.

It was changed when I had it serviced immediately after buying last July.

Any How-To suggestions re: gearbox and bevel box oil changes? They might need to be in crayon for me...  

Gearbox drain is 17mm plug on the left/bottom of the box just inboard of the rear master cylinder. Filler is 20mm plug with 8mm hex key centre above drain on LH side.

Bevelbox has 17mm drain at the bottom and is filled through the 10mm plug with a 6mm hex key centre at the back of the box. Fill until oil is at bottom of threads of the fill hole.

Pete

yeah a hint, fill the carc with the bike pointing down hill a little, on the side stand...and remove the breather when you fill....find a small funnel that fits BEFORE you start...you have been warned...drain it on the service stand with the front end propped up after a ride with the bike straight up and down, it draing a lot quicker if the carc is warm and you remove the breather to drain.

oh yeah cut up an old oil bottle to make a funnel that will stay put and flow the tranny oil into a pan, do this BEFORE YOU START it will become obvious why.


The best sequence I have found for the routine maint is :
1 just after the ride drain the carc and tranny, while they arte warm
2 this gives time to cool engine just enough to do the engine oil next
3 re-fill all
4 next morning set valves (motor is now cold)
5 sync tbs
6 set co tps
this sequence seems to minimize down time and has the parts hot you want hot for a good drain, then cold for the valves
tranny is 500ml
I measure out 380ml for the carc, usually 370 goes in.

The carc can be a bitch to fill, breather removal and the right funnel makes it easy, warming the oil if its winter for 30 sec in the microwave helps a lot when its freezing outside

These be just hints