I was talking to a local the other night about my recent cam upgrade and some other mods I did myself. We got to talking about adjustable pushrods vs solids, and he brought up the point that adjustables may be the weakest link in the valvetrain being that the nuts can back off or even crack under certain circumstances.

He did his cam upgrade by going in through top end and dropping his old stock solid pushrods back in. No adjustments to worry about and only took him about an hour and a half, etc etc.

Now the interesting part was he said he didnt even have to use new gaskets. When he took cam cover off the gasket was clean, didnt peel off or break and looked brand new so he reused it. Same with top end. No leaks, bike runs great, and he had about 29k miles on bike.

So how many have opened top end up and didnt have to change gaskets or anything? On my old evo the gaskets always tore and came off in pieces.

I know this is subject to opinion but is there anything that really needs changing in top end if gaskets dont break when removing rocker boxes?

 

I would put new ones in. Why go through all that work and have to redo it because of a leak? That is not to say I haven't reused gaskets, but they were in more accesable areas!

 

My thoughts exactly. If I opened up top end every gasket and O ring would probably break or need replacing if I didnt have a new gasket kit with me.

 

reusing a gasket is just plain stupid!! for the price of one, are you willing to redo all the work necessary to go and replace it once it starts leaking? Yo own an expensive motorcycle, and find it acceptable to cut corners on gaskets? Wow!! As far as the adjustables being a weak link, the SE adjustables did at one time have a problem with the nuts coming loos and breaking, but that was a long time ago. If you have a real high lift cam and high pressure springs and are hitting very high rpm, you might consider using solid puishrods, as if you are drag racing!! adjustable work just fine. and make repairs/changes easier down the road. buy you friend a beer, and don't listen to his advice!!

 

Backyard mechanic reusing gaskets. This is why I don't buy used. You never know who worked on it or what they did. I bought used once and never will again.

 

When I did my cams last year, I also stayed with the OEM pushrods which required going through the top end. When I peeled away the rocker cover gaskets part of the imbedded silicone beads would disintegrate, rendering the original gaskets useless. Not a prob for me as I had new gaskets at the ready. As others have already said, why take 'short cuts' on a job so involved? But to each his own....
~

 

+1 on the above. I just took a 2002 Fatboy up to a 95" this past winter, and if I had reused ANY of those gaskets it would have been my luck that it would have failed and started puking oil 50 miles into my break-in period. No reusing gaskets for me...

 

does he also re-use condoms? You know.....just turn them inside out?

 

I understand completely the opinion of replacing the gasket when exposed.

However, why call someone stupid who doesn't do that because, in his judgment, the old looks fine, he reuses it, and it subsequently does not leak?

If it doesn't leak, then what was "stupid" about it? LOL!

 

WOW! This thread went downhill fast! lol

Me personally, I would use new gaskets, o-rings etc where called for in the manual. Id hate to go through all that time and effort to only have to do it over again because of a gasket leak that might have taken less than 5 minutes to take off and install.

His bike was pretty spotless so I guess re-using the gaskets worked for him so far. More importantly I just hope he replaced the cam bearings when he was in there. We didnt discuss that. That could be awhole nother thread. lol