rocker cover gasket

Noticed a oil leak near the header exits after a hefty motorway thrashing, i suspect its coming from the rocker cover gasket after I checked the valve clearances. 

Was just curious if this gasket often needs replaced after opening that part of the engine up? or do people apply a wet sealant to the gasket too? (i didn't)  Can't remember what haynes says. Don't fancy splashing out £30 for a new gasket if I just need to add sealant.

cheers

I kept the original gasket after doing valve clearances, just removed the remainder of the last (original?) sealant then re-applied some cheapo 'car plan semi hardening gasket' sealant (I think from memory Haynes recommends this? ). Been good for a good few thousand miles since. My gasket did seem to be in good nick, guess that would make a difference so worth an inspection first.  

just pop some sealant on it, used 'hylomar blue' on mine which is easy enough to get hold of.

Honda say just to apply sealant in the semi-circular cutouts, but this may be wishful thinking when re-using the gasket, unless the gasket's in great nick and you fastidiously clean the mating surfaces and the gasket itself. If you do use sealant all round just be damn sure not to apply more than a light smear: if any gets inside and detaches and gets in oil passageways your engine's potentially in deep sh1t.

@jchesshyre wrote:If you do use sealant all round just be damn sure not to apply more than a light smear: if any gets inside and detaches and gets in oil passageways your engine's potentially in deep sh1t.

Good tip! 
Mine has leaked along the front edge since I did the valve clearances about 4-5000 miles ago(!).
I'm going to take it off tomorrow and apply some gasket sealant.

When I did my valve clearances I cleaned up the gasket and mating surface and applied gasket sealant all round - I didn't have a problem with leaking.

So if your is leaking I'd clean it up and apply some gasket sealant.

You can use black silicone sealant at a push, they sell big tubes at Toolstation. Used it on my mates Daytona 900 to cure a leak following valve clearances.

Just a little heads-up about this: I've just done my valve clearances and on reading the Honda manual (I've only used Haynes before) I notice that Haynes neglects to mention that the rear valve cover bolts should be tightened before the front ones. I didn't do this yesterday as I hadn't read the Honda manual that closely but will loosen them and re-tighten tonight starting with the rear ones. I've always had a smidgen of oil seepage around the cover gasket so it'll be interesting to see if this makes a difference. N.B. if the cover and the mating surface on the cylinder head are thoroughly cleaned with brake cleaner or similar then sealant should only be necessary in the semicircular cutouts, not all the way round, as specified by Honda.

forgot to say thanks for the guidance on this one. Will hopefully get this done in the next week or two...

...my torque wrench is conveniently locked away somewhere in work storage, and all i really need to do to get the bike back on the road is apply wet sealant on the cover gasket. I think they only need torqued to 10Nm? so quite a delicate hand required, would anyone else attempt this without a torque wrench?

@geewhizz wrote:...my torque wrench is conveniently locked away somewhere in work storage, and all i really need to do to get the bike back on the road is apply wet sealant on the cover gasket. I think they only need torqued to 10Nm? so quite a delicate hand required, would anyone else attempt this without a torque wrench?

Yes, I think I would have a go, but only with a *small* ratchet or spanner - to reduce the chance of screwing things up and breaking stuff.

If you clean up the mating surfaces and apply some sealant it shouldn't really matter how 'hard' the cover is screwed down - as long as some pressure is being exerted on the rubber gasket all round it should be fine.

There is also little to be lost by doing up 'not tight enough' other than a small amount of oil that might leak out - if that happens you can tighten it up a little bit.

Your probably right,  but I decided to buy a smaller lower scale torque wrench and some decreaser to do a proper job on it.  I'm having to work outside so if I do the job right the first time all the better.  It's too cold to do it twice!