EV006 VM ENGINE

I seem to have oil leaks - particularly one is coming from around the push rod mounting (but not sure exactly where) and ran down the front of the cam gear cover on the RHS of the engine? - David Royston 11/11/2000

You can make the engine completely oil-tight, though not the primary chaincase, which will always leave a few drops when you stop. It MAY be the nuts on the bottom studs of the p/r tunnel need tightening, (or the top ones) but only snug them up, they are easy to strip in the case. More likely from the symptoms it's the o-ring that seals the exhaust valve lifter that is worn and leaking. It's easy to replace. - TW 12/11/2000

The oil leak on right hand side of the engine has been largely eliminated, I just have a small leak coming through the joint in the middle of the push rod tube. As you suspected, I found the "O" ring missing on the valve lifter and replaced it with a commercial type 012: 3/8" by 1/2" by 1/16". I also added a little Silastic around the push rod tube studs before re-tightening the nuts just in case oil was coming down a stud and through a spring washer gap (simply tightening the nuts had not fixed the leaks in the past). - DR 30/12/00

Oil leaks that look like the gland nut in the middle of the pushrod often aren't. But it's worth giving it a turn in case it makes a difference. The only way I have found to do this is by threading a worm-drive hose clip around it and gently tapping it round a couple of degrees, then loosen and repeat. No need to over-tighten. It could be any of the top-end joints - tappet cover, rocker box, upper pushrod cover flange, or the tapped hole above the exhaust stub for the rh front rocker box holding down bolt - but all these are alloy threads so don't try solving the problem by over-tightening. One frequent cause that can give oil in the same area is leaks down the cylinder head studs. Oil goes down the thread of the nut, down the stud inside the head then out at about the level of the gland-nut. Velocette modified the head to put an O-ring under the washer to squeeze onto the thread and stud and seal it, and used nyloc nuts, but sometimes the oil can still get out. - TW 30/12/00