Not a good idea to chrome something that absorbs/dissipates heat; better to paint it black. Honda wrote a paper on the fact that black paint dissipates heat better than plain aluminum. I have always painted my cylinders on a Beetle engine rebuild with thermal black, and plazma coated the interior of the cylinder heads and piston crowns, and inside the exhaust ports. I also painted the pushrod tubes, since they are in the airflow under the engine and contain oil flowing back to the sump from the rockers. Runs cooler and less cylinder wharpage from shutting down hot, should an emergency require shutting off the engine before cooling the hot cylinders. This is more a problem in the Microbus than the Beetle, and also more of a problem riding an air cooled bike in town on hot summer days. Stanley
________________________________ From: Minnesota Blue <[email protected]> To: Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers! <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 9:43:52 PM Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] Valve Cover Gasket Hello everyone. So the 83 650 is back together and running!! New paint, several new nuts, bolts, gaskets, washers, o-rings, and a few other things later. Spent a long time getting 26 years of dirt and neglect out of all the small spaces. Back to running like a champ now except for one problem. The valve cover is still leaking. We had pulled it off this winter, cleaned the surfaces, and put a new gasket in. My father even surprised me by getting the valve cover chromed, which looks really nice! Fired up the bike today and took it for a test drive. Sure enough, it was pumping oil out in a few spots. Took the tank off and re-torqued the whole thing. Went for another drive, still leaking. Not as bad, but still leaking. I really don't want to torque the hell out of them. My mechanic told me to put the new gasket on dry. With the leaks, I am thinking about taking it off and putting a gasket sealer on to seal up all of the leaks. Anyone been through this? I am sure the gasket sealer will work, but I don't want to cause problems for myself down the road, Any suggestions would be great. Thanks! MN Blue --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
