82 XJ550 Gasket Kits

I think the time has finally come for a rebuild of the old Seca Engine. Shes leaking oil like a siv out of 3 different areas, the oil light comes on and then shuts off all the time (yes its full), and its beginning to run like crap (its the carbs and a tired battery but I want to blame the engine for now). In addition I really want to get started on building this bike back to its glory days and that will involve cleaning and painting the engine to stock form.

A few things I know I will need:
Gasket Kit (head gasket, all other gaskets, O rings)
Stator. The owner before me tore a wire off the stator and once he repaired it, the voltage out of the system was down)

For all of you who have done an engine rebuild on one of these bad boys any suggestions, recommendations or anything else that I should purchase?
Any special tools needed?

Plan is to take the bike off the road in October, till then I will just be nice to it. I've rebuilt a lot of engines before on both bikes and cars, so hopefully it goes smoothly.

 

Start a conversation with @chacal he runs THE XJ shop. He'll help you with what you need

 

No, he runs xj4Ever

 

...and XJ4Ever is the XJ shop.
Do the italics make it more clear?

 

Now I'm confused..........

 

Definitely my plan to get in contact with him soon and start ordering parts. Wanted to get a feeler out there and make sure I wasn't going to run into anything unexpected.

And NO FIGHTING on my post! Go do it on someone elses lawn please.

 

Oil leaks can be deceiving and often times it is all a result of the valve cover gaskets and seepage making the diagnosis difficult.

Have you done a compression check on the engine? Carbs cleaned and valves set to spec? What kind of mileage does it have? I know it can get incredibly expensive to rebuild, and some of the parts are no longer available. Point is, the poor running could be something other than a costly engine rebuild. You can make the engine look really good without a teardown.

As for the oil light it has nothing to do with oil pressure, but is simply a float activated switch indicating there is oil in the sump.

That doesn't sound good if you are referring to the enameled wire at the stator. Perhaps a pic of the repair will help determine if it needs to be replaced.

 

Sorry for that. We're not fighting, just friendly banter...

 

Haha yes I know, we are all friends on here right??

So I have an oil leak coming out of the tach cable (I'm actually looking on converting to electronic but if not this is a simple o-ring)
There is a leak from the crankshaft meeting the right side of the case.
And there is a leak underneath the bike in the back (too much crud to tell where)

The engine has about 40,000 miles on it (the speedo was unplugged for a while so thats an estimate). The valves were done 3000 miles ago so they are due for a check.
Carbs still need a cleaning so I was planning on doing them at the same time.
Compression is still good.
What would be your suggestion for the oil light?

I wanted to take a feeler for all the parts to tell if I'd be financially capable of even doing a rebuild. If you are saying its going to get expensive then I may avoid doing so. I have rebuilt a lot of old Hondas and they are dirt cheap to rebuild. I really want to clean this engine up though, so will be buying degreasers and such to clean off all the build up.

I'll definitely take a picture of the stator when I get a chance. I know I need to get a new battery, this one is really on its way out. I have a feeling thats also why the bike is struggling to run anywhere under 1500 rpms for the first 20 minutes. Combination of weak charging system and a weak battery.

 

I seem to recall some intermittent success with totally stopping the leak at the tach cable, but if the metal parts are in good order it should work. XJ4ever does sell a block off assembly for the mechanical tachs if you should decide to go with electronic.

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/tach-gear-housing-oil-seal-replacement-w-pics.19538/

This one would most likely be seepage from the oil filter housing that finds its way to the back of the motor from the wind. Some complaints on some of the aftermarket filters that contain an o-ring for the housing is that it is on the small side and resulted in some leaks at the housing.

The switch can be removed and cleaned, but it is quite a job because of its location. The alternate plan suggested on here is to add seafoam to the engine oil per the directions on the can. Or per the seafoam website, which recommends 1 to 1.5 ounces per quart of oil with an expected oil / filter change in 100 to 300 miles.

https://seafoamsales.com/how-to-add-sea-foam-to-oil-crankcase/

Well as suggested above check with XJ4ever, Chacal (Len) is extremely helpful and can give you the information you are looking for.

And for some late night reading on how to restore these older machines to make them safe and reliable:

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/the-information-overload-hour.27544/

 

You sir have a lot of good information here. I think I might go the seafoam route and still take it out and clean it. I just hate looking down, seeing the light on and thinking is this the boy who cried wolf. I'll have to look into the oil filter housing and see if its wet around there. The bottom of the bike is quite nasty, needs a hell of a cleaning. Tons of degreasers out there...which is your favorite?

 

there's three torx screws behind the alternator rotor that king kong put in with loc-tite then peened in place. drill out the dents, then if you have a hand impact driver, use it. if you don't have one, get one

Gunk engine cleaner

 

Ok, that is good information to note. Thankfully I have one already, so just gotta get around to working on it.