Head ~ Oil leak

[Garn 1]

Hi guys, I have an oil leak in the head of my Z1B. The leak was extremely hard to find, however, after careful investigation, I have isolated it to the small oil-way blanking plugs. there are four such items on each head.

These blanking plugs are about 8 mm dia and about 8 mm long and are pressed into the oil-way ends at the manufacturing stage, to obviously seal (blank off) the oil-way, to allow a change in direction of the oil flow to the cam-shaft bearings etc. They can easily be seen from each side of the head under the half-moon seals.

Does anyone know the "fix" for this leak? It is only a tiny leak. I was thinking of cleaning from the outside and allowing some loctite to penetrate. Leaving for a day and checking.

An interesting observation about these plugs is, that the early Z1 had metallic plugs and the later Z1A, Z1B and Z900-A4 on had aluminium plugs. You can test for a Z1 head with a magnet!

RegardZ

[Garn 1]

Just for a helping hand, the other idea I was proposing was to drill and tap the offending plug(s) and by means of a suitable piece of tubing and a screw & nut, extract the plug and replace with another, manufactured in a lathe.

I know it's an unusual problem, however, I thought some of you guys would have come across it before! I'm disappointed, maybe the technical experts only view the forum once a week. RegardZ.

[Z1_Kerry]

Garn, A wise old past US drag racer by the name of Mick B told me the solution to this only a few months back and you're on the right track. Remove the plugs and refit/replace using Locktite to seal. He assured me they won't leak again KP

[chainoiler]

Garn, it seems the same problem must have occurred at some point with my Z1A. The plugs have been drilled and tapped with a 4mm thread which has then been fitted with a grub screw. A very tidy and efficient solution.

[Garn 1]

Z1-Kerry & Chainoiler thanks for the replies.
I do think I will have to extract them and loctite them, however to extract them I will have to drill and tap. I have heard of them being drilled out to get rid of any grit from blasting.
For Chainoiler, can't see how the drill & tapping with 4mm would seal them. The leak seems to come from the outside diameter, approx 8 mmdia, unless you are talking about the other two smaller oil plugs close by.

RegardZ.