My 2 cents is any engine will last longer if ya give it a minute to warm. If you crank a cold motor and tach it out is like slapping your wife to wake her up. Not good.

 

That there sounds about right!

 

You always gotta ride gently until its warm but that isn't about gaskets leaking.

BTW the oil leaks on the base gaskets are by the return gallery.....there isn't any pressure other than gravity in there, what blows the oil out is crankcase pressure.

A lot of myths out there, especially around Evo's....its just a machine dudes...a cool one admittedly but it doesn't have its own laws of physics to make it work...

 

They already did......... it's jiffy stand and forward-facing-illumination now.

 

Anything to save a few pennies when assembling a $15,000 bike (back then). Look at GM and the $1.00 ignition 'fix'.

My brand new 1993 FLHS went 12 months before the weeping began. And another 12 years before I fixed it.

EVO oiling is flow, not pressure. Before I tossed my third (and last) oil pressure gauge into the trash, I could regularly record oil pressure under 10 psi. One time it went to ZERO! As long as the oil is flowing, and the motor doesn't sound like two midgets beating a Studebaker with sledgehammers.... You're fine.

As long as it isn't a cup holder. Or a 'Harley-Davidson' logo shift rod. Or more than two gold 'Live to Ride' do-dads.

Depends on what you're slapping her with.... I was young once....

Yep. And a pizz poor design by The MoCo. Had they only installed a hollow dowel pin the oil would not have had the opportunity to 'pool' around the base gasket. Again, tripping over dollars to pick up pennies.

 

FWIW, I've warmed mine religiously from day-one when I bought the bike new in 1997. The rear base gasket just started weeping a couple of years ago. Not bad, just moist with oil at the base. I probably won't bother replacing the gasket until I see a drip on the floor.

Because of this, I believe it will eventually happen to any EVO with stock base gaskets at some time.

 

Key word: stock gaskets. Also original milling of jugs and crankcase not too good either. When I built my engine I had all surfaces milled flat.

Hmmm, 97 = 17 years of no sepage and you warmed it up. I think Ill stay with warm it up.