if your talking about the valve adjustment covers they have an O ring. You will have to get a Honda one cause it isnt round. might be able to use a round one but it might not be fun. As for the bolts, not bad after you spend an hour taking the tank off and swearing at the air intake. I cut the short end of an allen wrench shorter that makes getting the screws out easier.

 

They're round but they do adapt the oval form when you put them, i know this because i changed them when i did a top rebuild.

 

Thanks for the answers. A few more questions I'd have. Furthermore, another detail: I see a lot more oil come out when I ride in the cold in the morning as opposed to when I ride in the heat in the afternoon. Oh, and both front and back are leaking simultaneously. The bike was sitting for a few months, I put some Sea Foam in the gas tank, but not in the oil.

Questions:

1) Could anything else cause an oil leak from under both valve covers?

2) The service manual says to remove: the steering covers, the fuel tank, the air cleaner case, the carbs, and the drain the coolant. Are these REALLY necessary to get to and change the valve cover O-ring?

3) I do see a gasket around the valve cover. I assume that is not the O-ring you are talking about. Does that need to be replaced?

Thanks

 

The service manual says that there is a "gasket" and also to apply contact cement. Any ideas on this? Plus, there seems to be a larger gasket with an O shaped attachment and two separate O-rings. See attached clips ...

 

The service manual says that there is a "gasket" and also to apply contact cement. Any ideas on this? Plus, there seems to be a larger gasket with an O shaped attachment and two separate O-rings. See attached clips ...

View attachment 45777

In the pic you see 3 gaskets, the cover gasket itself and two o-rings of the valve covers.

If the leak comes from under the head cover then you need to change the gasket, else the o-ring, i would go and change everything, just a tip, the head cover gasket is a PITA to put it correctly, put it wrong and you get a damaged gasket and an engine blowing out oil from the top, what i did was to apply some superglue/locktite so the gasket was stuck in the cover and then put it back on with good results ;-)

 

My 92 is also starting to leak a little out of the valve covers. I'm waiting for winter to tackle it.

 

Winter to tackle it? Unfortunately, mine is more like oozing, with smaller puddles under the bike. I do not think it can go on for long and also my saddle bag is getting covered. I think these are the part numbers we need:

12391-MF5-750 ... Gasket, cylinder head cover ... big gasket.

and possibly:

91303-MF5-003 ... O-RING, 44X3 .... smaller rounder ring
91304-MF5-003 ... O-RING, 62.4X2.5 ... larger Oval ring

 

Final, 4th question: Do you even need to remove the allen bolts? As far as I know, they are for the valve clearance inspection windows. They have the O-rings. The cam cover is the larger beast. The inspection windows can happily stay on the cam cover itself without even touching those O-rings, as far as I can tell.

 

what does the coolant has to do with anything?

I have a '07. It escapes me why the previous owner would need to remove the cylinder head cover? Btw, new coolant in my 600 always seem to make the bike run better for whatever reasons. Same with new plugs.

 

As far as I can tell, there is a coolant inlet going through the cam cover through the block. That's what it has to do with it, if you remove the cam cover. If all you remove are the valve inspection cover windows, then I assume you are clear and do not need to drain the system. Please correct me if I am wrong. I currently do not know where I am leaking from, it could be either the inspection window or the cam cover gasket. The only reason they would have needed to remove it would have been to replace/work on the camshaft or the timing chain or rebuild the entire engine.

 

My bad. Just back from a ride & noticed the 'coolant' tube waving at me. And yea, might as well empty to coolant and put in new.