engine build - slowly but surely

[Dick Eastman]

Hi all,
It's been awhile. Just a quick q for tonite: Does anyone use a gasket sealer on head [and cam cover gaskets]? Been trying to eliminate an oil leak...second time I've pulled engine. First time, I removed cylinders from block and re-cut block to achieve a .003-.005 " step on sleeve-to-block clearance; also made sure cylinder nuts would torque down to specs without bottoming in acorn nut, as well as re-torquing after some run cycles; also added a crankcase vent tube in oil fill cap. I put thicker copper washers under all cyl hd nuts. The cyl studs were super clean and zinc plated; all threaded stud holes in cases were Heli-coiled on the mill. The only thing I did not do and may be the culprit was that the hollow dowels in the head were larger than 11mm [.433"]. They were .438" dia., quite sloppy. The holes in block are about .4337, a nice slip fit. Perhaps the head dowel holes were big enough to allow too much oil pressure to get past the o-rings. With that in mind, I made new hollow dowels that are stepped to fit closer with less than .001" clearance in their respective holes. There is plenty of oil reaching the rocker shafts - no restrictions there, either. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. Other than this annoyance, the bike runs out strong, sounds good. I do want to come up with some more adjustable rear-sets.
Dick