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2008 Suzuki Bandit 1250 Oil Leak (SOLVED)

Joined
Oct 18, 2023
Messages
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Location
Oregon
I did my valve clearances yesterday. I have a Haynes manual that I've been following, and I followed every step aside from replacing the sealing washers on the oil pipe on the right hand side of the valves, and did not replace the gasket for the cover that covers the bolt that spins the crankshaft on the right side. I fired the bike up, and it ran. Took it for a test ride, and pulled over to inspect the bike. There was oil leaking out somewhere on the front. I pulled it back into my garage, sprayed off the oil, and fired the bike up again. It began leaking oil out of a tiny hole that's underneath every single exhaust header. It leaks out only while the bike is running, and if you pull on the throttle, tiny droplets of oil spray out of the hole. The specific cylinder is the #3 cylinder (if the #1 cylinder is the far lefthand cylinder). This cylinder also happens to be the cylinder that the oil pipe runs next to (the oil pipe runs in between the #3 and #4 cylinder). Another thing I noticed is that the head has little puddles of oil that just rest up there while the engine isn't running. When I pulled the buckets off, some of the oil leaked into the top of the valve.

Does anyone know what those holes are for? Am I on the right track of either having some sort of oil leak with that oil pipe because I didn't replace the washers, or because oil leaked into the valve, and that's just some sort of way to flush/pump the oil out of the exhaust valve? Or am I completely on the wrong track? I've already tried doctor googling this issue, but I can't find anything about this.

I've included 4 different pics of it. 3 of the leaking one, and one pic of one of the holes which isn't leaking. It definitely is leaking from inside the hole. At first I thought it was the head gasket, but it is definitely flowing from that hole. I even have a video of it leaking if you need me to post it.

Banditforum.co.uk solved the problem (https://www.banditforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=145577.msg1316207#msg1316207). My valve cover gasket wasn't seated correctly above that spark plug, and oil was flowing in. I just had to take the cover off, reseat it, and send it. That hole is for water that gets into the sparkplug hole to drain out.
 

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