Chaps, finally I've spent some time on the M20, cleaned the tank out, new fuel, new plug, clean contacts, cleaned the carb, sorted the stuck rusty valve and....thud thud thud goes the engine after about 8 months of not being run...Hooray! I smiled like an idiot as some of you know I'm working on my mechanic skills even now;)

-There was a hell of a lot of oil smoke for about 2 mins, which I havent had befor, I'm assuming this is just the oil burning off from wet sumping as she's been stood and just kicked over? Would this be right..

Ok, so running for about 5 mins, oil was being spurted out the head.

- I replaced the head gasket some weeks ago and realised that I haven't done the bolts up enough when she fired up, so I have oil leaking out of the head, is it ok just to tighten it all down, or should I take it off again, clean everything?

- will the gasket be OK to re use without any need to do anything to it, (it's a composite head gasket) and I've just put it on out of the packet?

Thanks...Kit

email (option): Kit247@hotmail.com

Well you definitely need to drain the oil from the crankcase, its bad to run a wet sumped engine & that's fairly certain what's happened, that much oil in the bore turns your engine into a powerful hydraulic pump, take the head off & clean everything.
If you hadn't fully tightened your head bolts then hopefully you hadn't compressed the gasket so give it a go.
Check all the other nuts as its very common to find other things need "nipping up" after the first run.

If your bike stopped smoking after 2 minutes, you do not have any more oil at sump,
So you might get away with fastening the bolts as shown at the tech section on the site.

It’s better to unfasten a little, and then go through the procedure and sequence on fastening.
If the head has a straight surface, all should usually work fine.


Noam.

email (option): noam10@gmail.com

when you tighten the cylinder head always do it on the good way crossing there is a special procedure for it. Gr Theo

email (option): oldbikes@kpnmail.nl

Although, I have just managed to snap a bolt in the barrel whist torquing it down, yay me!

She was running better than ever before as well....so that will be me taking it all to bits again, this time in the dining room...

email (option): Kit247@hotmail.com

My current plan is to take the barrel off and send it off to the local engineers to remove the snapped bolt...

But I'm seeing a lot of extractor tools you can use to remove these types of breaks. Am I barking up the wrong tree with thinking I can do this, Iv never done it before, with a little past experience in such matters, I'm thinking plan A is best and not bugger about with trying to do it at home without a workshop..what do you think, its no real drama taking off the barrel, Ive got all the tools to do that and get it all back together again, just have to order the gaskets...and bolts

Hi Kit..I would take it to the Engineers..Unless you have all the required equipment and are familiar with the procedure there are a number of potential pitfalls and your barrel is probably not the thing to experiment on...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Thanks Ian, I thought so, best not dick about. Even my old man said have a go, but knowing how these things go, my lack of a workshop and how lovely that liner is you put in it, best go down the easey route.

She sounded really lovely though, my son (5) helped, we smiled like idiots, he jumped around, so best do it right and get that sound back in my life quick sharp..for his birthday next month he would like a trip to the Tank museum, can't argue with that..