Transmission questions

R-III-R Turbo said:

If you remove the plugs then oil will certainly creep into the combustion chamber by the level of oil moving upwards in the camshaft space.
It would be best to just drop the oil before removing engine from bike.

I find it hard to imagine how the starter would be able to produce enough force to bust a head gasket with hydraulic lock. Maybe I'm wrong. Wondering did the oil creep out somewhere else and just "appear" like it came from

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Ercouper said:

I'm pretty sure that you are correct! Yes, the engine was upside down in the "box" that I built to hold it. I don't know why I didn't think of that. And possibly the head gasket didn't leak until trying to turn the motor over with the oil in the combustion chamber (?). Thanks!
The next time (hopefully there won't be one) I will have to remember to remove the plugs before inverting the engine.

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Ercouper said:

I drained all the oil that I could by removing all 3 drain plugs before removing and inverting the engine. It is possible that the oil film that I was seeing between the head/block came from somewhere else I suppose. When the starter wasn't able to turn the motor and I thought the battery might be low, I put it in 5th gear and rocked it back & forth a couple of times causing the rear tire to skid without turning over the engine. Maybe that was enough to cause head gasket failure (?). When I removed the head, I was amazed at the seemingly small amount of oil that caused the lock. Still seems strange....

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Ercouper said:

The head gasket was in today's mail, so tomorrow I should have her back together. Wish me luck.....

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Kevin frazier said:

You using new bolts?

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