The CB1100 Community Forum

I think I already know the answer to this question, but I am not thrilled to even think about it.

I bought a leftover '14 a couple weeks ago. Yesterday I went down to take it out, and before I did I was looking it over. It had right at 100 miles on it, and I noticed some oil on a couple of the cyl fins.

I haven't looked since, but I will head to the garage in a bit and look again and take a picture.

Hard to get the camera to focus on it, but here is a picture-




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May need some fastners retorqued; worst case - a new gasket. Very minor issue with simple solutions.

I trust it's still under warranty, so any repairs should be covered.

Mine did this for a while and then it just went away. I tightened the 10mm valve cover bolts, but this didn't really help (the way it's designed tightening them doesn't really matter anyway).

If you ever see under the valve cover you will see that there is a pool of oil that builds there, rhe top of which is above the valve cover gasket. This is because the bike tips forward and left when on the sidestand. I started parking it with a block of wood under the sidestand (the center stand would work even better) and it made it go away.

Yea, it's not leaking at the valve cover- its the cyl head gasket.

Taking a brand new bike in for warranty work is a pita I wasn't expecting- have to get someone to follow me to drop the bike off, then drive me back to pick it up. Bummer.

Before you take it to dealer clean off the oil and give the bike a good bath to remove all the factory protective coatings. Then ride it for a while ro see if it comes back.

I doubt it's leaking through the steel shim head gasket, but anything is possible. I'd agree with best standard, clean it up a verify....

Not much to doubt- if you zoom in, you can see the dark area on the gasket. Right above that is a wider fin which is clean and dry- no oil up top. It is definitely from the head gasket. I would not have expected this from a modern machine either, but anything is possible.


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Btw- although I new here, I am not new to engines. I've been hotrodding anything with a motor for decades. I currently own several cars and several bikes, having fairly heavily modified more than a few over the years.

I suppose my wording of 'normal' was phrased improperly- but it is the easiest way to fit 'anyone ever had this happen before?' into a thread title.

So now comes the delima. If the leak continues do I tear it down myself and put a new gasket in it.. or do I go through the hassle of bringing it to a dealer just to trust it to someone else's work? I've been around cars enough to have seen waaaay too many botched dealer monkey repairs. At least if I do it myself, I know it is done right. Which is important to me, especially on things such as cyl tq values being observed.

Naturally although I don't mind the time for a teardown, the work, or the cost of a gasket- it is disappointing to have to potentially do it soo soon on a new bike, and I don't want to eat the cost on a cyl head if it is warped or defective.

Ugh.


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Nothing you can get from a forum can help you. The image is impossible to scrutinize very well anyway. If you have been working on engines for all that time you know that oil seeps and migrates, and it's very hard to tell exactly where it's coming from without cleaning the surfaces and then checking again after a time.

What I would do is irrelevant but if I had this problem and the bike was under warranty, I would not touch it. Honda has an obligation to fix it and fix it right. If the dealer screws it up they have to redo it until it's correct. If YOU attempt it and have problems, there is no more warranty. Pretty hard to believe anything is wrong with that engine, the bike is made in Honda's newest and most advanced plant with the best available technology. The bike is also known to leak from the valve cover gasket on the left.

Sounds like you are well aware of all this stuff.