Has anyone heard about any head gasget leaks on the 06 or 07 zx14s...

Not head gaskets but the valve cover gasket leaked on the 06 and 07's, easily fixed though.

.....and my 08. Just figured i=out where the oil was going all these years. Burning on the motor until it got bad enough to run down where i could see it.

I imagine if everyone did the valve clearance check and replaced the cover gasket as you are supposed to, the valve cover leaks would prolly never be a problem. I should have done mine 3 times now. This is sort of like a built in "overdue for service" indicator. It certainly encourages me to bring the scheduled maintenance up to date. Sure, I could let it go. It is not dripping on the floor yet. It all burns off. Who wants to ride around breathing burnt oil fumes and ----just think of the soot and oil soaked into pads in the fairings once this gets sever enough. that's okay for an old dump truck but not my bike.

I just bought my bike last week. It is an 07 with 11k miles. I took the fairings off and i noticed a little oil leaking. So this is really common on our bikes? What other weird things are normal on our bikes?

A history of throwing rods. Not common but an established history. Have known of 3 or 4 guys who reported the crankshaft bearing going and busting rods out engine case. That is out of hundreds of owners who have had thousands of miles of good service. The busa has the same thing going on. Don't hear so much about this problem anymore. Maybe they quietly fixed it. Not something I would worry about but it has happened. NO recalls for that.

Speaking of recalls, make sure your 07 has had the frame approved/bolts retorqued because the G1 was cracking back on the swingarm. That, I heard several reports about back in 08.

The oil leakage is not too big a deal. A lot of folks just put a washer under the bolt heads and tighten it down to spec. The bolt holes are not deep enough to allow overtorque so when the gasket gets flattened and eventually leaks, there is no way to squeeze it any harder. If the valve clearance has not been done in the last 8000 miles, id just do it and change the gasket. That's what I will be doing.

How challenging it is to do the valves on these bikes? I did mine on my VTR1000. It took an afternoon, but it was not horrible. Timing was the hardest part.

I have 06 model and it is bit leaking,not a lot but still....
How much time is required to get to gasket and replace?Tank,airbox,all cables,pipes....
Probably 3h.

I have 06 model and it is bit leaking,not a lot but still....
How much time is required to get to gasket and replace?Tank,airbox,all cables,pipes....
Probably 3h.

I did the same washer mod listed above to my 2008 last year. Very simple to do. Took approx the same amount of time as Cooter states. Problem solved. No oil weeping out since.

* Last updated by: danfzx14 on 5/15/2011 @ 1:06 PM *