Gasket particles in intake rocker box, how much danger?

I went to adjust my valves today & the "Reusable" gaskets I had used crumbled & some fell in the intake box. I fished most of it out but i'm sure there is more in there laughing at me. How dangerouse is this ? What would the symtoms be if any? Smoke from oil build up maybe? The bike has massive Norton compression & never smokes so if it starts to I guess I will know why? Where exactly are the drain holes located. Should I try to look at them if I can? Thanks. Oh & yes I will be going back to the old gaskets that I never had problems with before. Reusable my ass!!!

Intake drain hole exits the RH of rear of rocker box into a passage that mates up with one in the barrel located about in the middle of rear barrel bore bulge.
Its definitely particle prone to blockage as only gravity moves oil down that tiny oil way. It it gets to TS case then into the oil pump its a non issue chewed to dust to settle with rest of the sludge or caught in filter. Worse I can envision are rocker cover leaks as intake fills up to drain into the exhaust side then onto cam.

BTW just which re-usable failed gaskets are we taking about, I'm on umteeth re-use on 4 engine rebuilds and still just a good a new a decade now with the red silly con kind.

Drains down through the pushrod tunnel / lifters . not ideal to contaminate .At least itll be finely ground up before it gets to the Cam .

Sounds like you need a dentists mirror , But , wonders of modern tecnology . A Fibre Optic probe .
A vet may have one , or the hospital . Youd have to see if they treat motorcycles , :lol:

A instrument light bulb with wires SECURELY soldered on , thin ones . Dunno about the fancy toobs , The P&T , dick smiths ?
( obviously you insert light bulb , wires wanna be stiffenough to ' steer ' it in there ., A tiny bayonet fit instrument globe .
High beam Wn Lt is high wattage .Out of a car , in the back field . :wink: )

Get a piece of the removed gasket and a mortar and pestle. grind up the existing gasket thoroughly . pour on boiling water to make an infusion . Let stand for five minutes before drinking . If you wake up & your not blind the next day, its probly
fairly safe .
Um . IF its got no gritty residue , its not gritty / abrasive .

Thanks, I'll see if I can find any more pieces, the gaskets were NOT the red ones hobot, I can't remember where they came from, to there credit they are at least 1 1/2 years old and have been on & off a couple times. This time they are crunchy. Can not be reused and I don't like how brittle they became. I am making my own this time from some of that empreggnated cork gasket material. I will also make sure there is little or no extra sticking out on the inside that could break off & fall in. The old paper kind I had for years seemed to stay togeather and come off in one piece. Safer I would say. Thanks.

i've only seen red ones and black ones

Yes sir I only what them big thick juicy stick out like a sore thumb highlight red silicon myself. Now a good cork gasket has long tradition of re-use like in V8 valve covers and fuel stuff. While in the mood might cut up a double set for yourself. A shizophrenic friend often said when he found a neat item he always got at least two.

The intake drain is on the right side as mentioned and there are 2 drains located at the edge of the exhaust valve spring seats that bend and drain into the push rod tunnels. All 3 drains are not much more than 1/8" so could clog easily. Eventually the bits could end up in the crank case and from there your big end bearings are in line for any such contaminants. It would be worth getting as much out as possible and maybe doing an oil change before too long.

Wow, thanks for the input. I haven't had a chance to go look at it but is it possible after cleaning to run a small wire down the input rocker side to push anything through? I have some Doctors forcepts of several sizes (little scizzer like pliers) and many little Dentist tools to work with. I'm going to hook up a very small tube to my small shop vacume to try & suck anything else out that I can but should I try to run wire down the drain???

Unless the motor was run with the debris in there there isn't much chance the stuff got near the exhaust side. Your best tool will be some really good light so you can systematically get all the crap from around the valve springs. It would be tough enough with the head off to see around in there but with what you have and maybe some long q tips with a bit of oil the stuff will stick to you should be able to mop most of it up. The drain holes are partially obscured by the valve spring seats and heat washers. If you are at the back of the engine looking at the right intake valve the drain should be about in the 4 o'clock position at the base of the spring when looking down it and all you'll see is a bit of a contour that is the edge of the hole. I'd start there or put a q tip over it as you mop up the crap and work away from it.

All the talk there is about the 60 year old design of the Norton engine we sometimes forget what a precision piece of equipment it is and the fact that we push it pretty hard just running it like it was meant to run. They aren't tanks or steam engines and we should do the best we can in keeping things tip top.

Here is a photo of the intake drain:



Here it is with the spring seat in place so you can imagine how difficult it will be to see with the valve and springs in place. I would try to keep all the particles out of the oil if possible.



Here is a shot of the left exhaust drain:

RennieK, thank you so much for those great pictures & explination. I used my shop vacume with a piece of clear fuel line attached to suck all the oil and particles out. I can see the drain hole and I was lucky that I could use my dentist tools to get around the springs & vacume the particles up. All I can do at this point is hope that nothing went down the drain hole but all the particles were in the middle & on the left so I think Im OK. Thanks again guys for your help.

We still don't know what you used for gaskets but it sure wasn't silicone. I bet they were cheaper...

As Rennie noted, the big end rod bearings are where the potential for significant damage can happen. That stuff is NOT what you want in those critical bearing surfaces.

As I said I don't remember where those gaskets came from but they were a dark brown rubbery type. I think I'll go back to the old kind, lightly greased & from now on I will trim ALL of the exsessive gasket material from the inside. Who sells the "good" type of silicone ones? I supose those are the red ones I've heard of. Thanks.

gtsun said:

As I said I don't remember where those gaskets came from but they were a dark brown rubbery type. I think I'll go back to the old kind, lightly greased & from now on I will trim ALL of the exsessive gasket material from the inside. Who sells the "good" type of silicone ones? I supose those are the red ones I've heard of. Thanks.

Click to expand...

rocky point

I got the black ones from RGM, but I'm not too impressed with them, they seem to crush and distort pretty easily and don't look like they are going to last very long.

Dave
69S