I have just purchased a 2007 XL1200L with 12k miles. The bike runs like a biolt of lightning. My buddy and I noticed the left front rocker panel wa leaking small amounts of oil so I ordered the cosmetic gasket kit to change the upper and lower gaskets for the rocker boxes. The bike was garage kept but needed a good cleaning and some updates. The chrome rocker box covers were horrible, so I cleaned them with easy off oven spray and then rinsed and hand dried them very much. We got all of the seals/gasket put on and the bike back together. I haven't ridden it because when I start iit and let it warm up about 5 minutes, I can see small amounts of smoke coming out of the whole in the front rocker box. The smoke is not the heavy kind but you can see and smell it. No exhaust smoke whatsoever. It wasn't smoking like this when I bought it a month ago. Haven't put 5 miles on it since installing new gasket and seals. We didn't not have the bike in gear when we worked on it. We had it on a jack and in neutral., or at least we thought so. We riolled the back wheel and I'm assuming we were on TDC. If anyone has done this, can you tell me if your rocker boxed smoke a little or should I be concerned. Any feedback would be grateful appreciates. Thx!!

 

Watch it for a few days. May just be oil that got on the cylinder head or the chemicals you used to clean the rockers.

You guys changed both the rocker cover gasjetson each head? The little square one in the cwnter and the larger toast shaped one?
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I just did the gaskets on the same bike. No smoke. If you had it in neutral I don't know that you were doing anything to get to TDC by turning the wheel. Not saying that has anything to do with your smoke... I agree with Cvaria. Run it a bit and see if it stops smoking.

See my thread in sig for a few pics of my gasket swap.

 

Did my front rocker gasket a couple of years ago because front was leaking. Like you, I cleaned up the parts. I used WD and when I started it up again, there was smoke for a few mins because the WD was burning away.

HTH.

 

Yes, we changed all of the gaskets for both rocker boxes, upper and lower, including the toast shaped, rectangle square in the middle, the small one that you have to unsrew that has the sponge type filter....the entire Cometic Gasket Kit for 07 1200. My buddy was looking inside the spark plug hole and inside the rocker boxes while I turned the wheel. I'm not confident at this point we were on top dead center. What damage could be caused if we were not top dead center? We are going to open the rocker boxes again and basically re-do what we attempted the first time. What do we need to inspect to ensure no damage was done (push rods)? From what I could see, the smoke was only coming from the front rocker box (the hole in the top). Thanks for the feedback.

 

If anyone has any suggestions regarding replacing the head and rocker box gaskets when not on top dead center, it would gratefully be appreciated. I have spok with various local people with some knowledge and they have all said to ride it a little bit before breaking back in the rocker boxes / heads, taking in to consideration that the bike is not smoking out of the exhaust and runs/sounds good. Their opinion was that it is most likely residue from the cleaner I put on the rocker boxes. Naturally, I'm paranoid because of the smoke. The last thing I want to do is cause a castrostophic event. Anyone with an opinion, please chime in and share your thoughts or experiences. Thank you for the feedback!!

 

stop stressing. To be honest, that tdc isno big deal anyway.

I'm sure some by the book person will flip out and tryto take off my head but, it really doesn't matter. It would matter if you were fooling with the lower boxes.

 

Thanks for the reply. We were all the way down (we replaced the rocker box gasket AND the cylinder head gasket. I've cleaned the fins with degreaser and rinsed. It seems to be far less smoke than before and the smoke is a trickling white smoke off of both rocker boxes, but you have to get the heads really, really hot. No smoke from exhaust and sounds great. It is easy to tell someone not to stress out when it's not your bike that you feel you possibly "jacked up". I've yet to find anyone that can tell me what real percussion would be is we were not on TDC. What I have heard is if the motor were to have a catastrophic event, I would know by now as I've started the bike, ridden it around my neighborhood a couple of times and have let it sit idling for 20 minutes, heating it up well above operating temp and still starts and sounds good. My assumption is that if it were going to be an issue, it would have already shown some kind of sign other than a little smoke from the top of the rocker boxes. Again, anyone that can tell me if damage that could have been caused by not being on TDC, would gratefully be appreciated. We are leaving in 4 weeks for a 2 week ride in TN/NC and I will be on my Ultra and my son-in law on the sportster 1200. Thanks in advance for any feedback.