Hey gents,ok so I get enough ***** to try my cylinder base gasket replacement everything went ok except head gaskets with o rings? book say to put them on ... gasket set is a james set JGI-17033-92, put 2 small grey ones on and they were real tight. That should have told me to stop.long story short is bike is blowing air out of head gasket area .Do I need to put those small O-rings on? And why did they come with set? And do you thing I can take them out and use gaskets again? Bike hasn't started. Feel like a fool? Thanks foir info ON other head o rings were little larger

 

I know the replacement gaskets from the MoCo specifically say "don't use o rings". What did your James gaskets say?

 

nothing just had torque sequence for heads

 

funny they had two smaller grey ones and two little larger ones..now I see I should have stopped and dug in a little....Why not send a little paper saying what the hell the pieces are for?

 

maybe one little oring and one larger per head?

 

Maybe dump the James gaskets and go Cometic you'll be better off, James stuff ain't what it used to be.

 

Wish I could be more help. Hopefully someone with experience with that specific set will be along soon. Otherwise, I'd call James in the morning and see what they say.

 

Yes I sent them a email already.. thinkin I shouldn't have put them in, any ways thanks and I get cometic for next try

 

I installed James gaskets in my1986,all the o-rings were the same size, and they are there for perfect alignment of the head gasket, at least in my case. Head gaskets without o-rings should have smaller holes for the head bolts for alignment.
Maybe they are not aligned or they were torqued wrong, very small increments in the correct pattern is important.

 

First the o-rings won't stop a motor from sealing.
Personal experience with that one.
I have used both James and Cometic metal gaskets and they both worked fine.
You're gonna need to get new head and base gaskets and I recommend Cometic MLS for the head and SLS for the base.
If you use those you don't need O-rings.

From what I have read most people who do this for a living say that the magic numbers for head and base gaskets are 20 thou base and 30 thou head.

As mentioned earlier I think the motor isn't sealing because of improper head tightening.

Follow the directions on your instruction sheet not the book!