I haven't been doing much riding lately because of work but I went to go ride around the neighborhood last weekend just to keep everything lubed and noticed my oil level was high. I started it up and let it run for about a minute, thinking it may have been drain back from the filter. I checked it again and it was bubbly-milky and my rad was a little low. So I changed the oil and there was deffenitly coolant in it. By then I didn't have much time so I parked it. I checked it again sunday before I started it and it was high again. I drained it right then and it looked exactly the same except it wasn't mixed together. I did notice the weep hole was damp on the waterpump. I only ran the bike for about 20 seconds to pull it back to where I park it. I'm about to be ordering parts and I wanted to confirm that I should only get the water/oil seal for the waterpump right? Or could it also/be the head gasket? Ive also heard that riding in deep/dirty water can cause the engine to cool rapidly and if the overflow is underwater, it could suck some of that stuff in and cause damage to that seal.

 

The inner oil seal would also have to fail to allow coolant past the water pump seal into the engine,but highly unlikely as the weep hole would expel the majority of the coolant. You need a water pump seal for sure since it's leaking and I suspect a head gasket since coolant is in the oil. Other things that can cause this is the head bolts can slightly back off over a period of time allowing head gaskets to seep coolant into the cylinders, radiators clogged especially at the fan area causing engines to get hot and blow gaskets.Also like you mentioned water could possibly cause heads/cylinders to warp a little and leak from the rapid cooling down effect,but as far as dirty water being sucked into over flow bottles and destroying water pump seals,no they can just fail on their own.

 

Thanks as usual OPT! I figured as much on the head gasket. I didn't think I would get away with an easy fix with just the water pump seal lol. And I'll make sure to check the head as well while I have it off. Should I change the base gasket as well?

 

Yes I'd pull the cylinder and replace the base gasket when you pull the head bolts and head. It's hard to keep from breaking the seal on the base gasket when you remove the head. Nothing worse than to put it back together and have the base gasket leaking. Plus it'll give you a chance to look over the pistons and rings.

 

Ok, sounds good to me. I guess I'll get some parts headed this way. Thanks again OPT!

 

So I finally found the time to tear into this thing and these are pics of what I found. Seems like I remember doing this a few yrs ago and found the same gap in the head gasket. The head and both sides of the cylinder (s) we're true and flat with no cracks after a good cleaning. The cylinders have lost their crosshatching but are still almost perfectly round.

 

I can see where the gasket is puckered all around. Wouldn't hurt to have a machine shop skim the head and cylinder since you're down this far. Lightly ball hone the cylinders to remove the glaze.If pistons are still with in tolerance I'd order a new ring set.Torque the head bolts in sequence and in stages as the manual shows. 700 was the worst one on leaking plus I never did trust these thin head gaskets.

 

Could I stack 2 gaskets together? I could have the machine shop take that much extra off to compensate for the extra gasket so it doesn't affect the compression ratio. It's not that it's a huge job like splitting the cases but still.

 

No on two gaskets..That would cause leaking from the get go. Most machine shops could just skim the head and cylinder and solve this problem. Or if you have a good flat surface you could use 600 grit paper and move the head and cylinder in a figure 8 several times.You could really tell then if either one or both needs to be machined down further by any light and dark areas.

 

Gotchya. I'll get them dropped off Monday then. Thanks again OPT!