ZXR250 oil leak

**bjcnz** · 5th June 2011, 21:27

Hey All! Hopefully someone out there can help me!

So I have found a(nother) oil leak on my ZXR250A

At first I was hoping it was either coming from my newly replaced oil filter or oil sump I just replaced but it appears to be something more sinister (see attached photos).

http://iforce.co.nz/i/otdk4lgx.3rd.jpg

Here you can see the oil on the water pipe

http://iforce.co.nz/i/m0fu13s1.bjq.jpg

I believe this is the culprit - Appears to be coming from this bolt here, but I am uncertain, could it just be a gasket problem?

http://iforce.co.nz/i/vwctr412.vbs.jpg

Another view of it all

Someone who hasn't seen it mentioned to me it could be the big end bearing? The bike runs perfectly fine at the moment (bar a cooling issue, but thats completely separate and I've just rebuilt the radiator so that should be solved now)

Do any of you know what could be causing this? And is this something someone whose no mechanic but good with their hands could fix? If not is it worth me taking the bike into a mechanics and getting it fixed or just selling it?

To be honest, I have spent more time with this bike in bits than riding it and I'm leaning towards buying something else for reliability, but at the same time i've poured my heart and soul into it I just don't want to see her go!

Thanks for your time!

Gah sorry, for some reason the images aren't loading even though they (I think) have the correct html tag

**tigertim20** · 5th June 2011, 21:45

For a start, give your engine a waterblast, get it all nice and clean, then run it for a few minutes, the source of your leak should be abundantly ckear then.

If it is that bolt, have you cheacked that it is tight? and checked that it hasnt been overtightened and cracked the casing, resulting in a slow leak?

How much oil is it going through, i.e. how long is it taking to get through say 10ml of oil?

If the bolt is tight, and theres no casing damage, and the oil leak is incredibly slow, then it might not be worth worrying about.

It could just be a gasket issue.

**bjcnz** · 5th June 2011, 21:52

Hey thanks for the advice, probably not a bad idea, does need a bit of a clean. You're possibly right about the cracked casing, the last owner had cracked the sump pan's casing so i'll give that ago. I hope thats not the case though.

Cheers