Thanks, for the info, the area where I saw bubbles was just fwd of the mainshaft but I did send it back to the vendor for exchange, I realized that when I saw bubbles, it "can't be good".. thanks hill climber, that was my impression too.. seeing it in print solidified my thinking about it being a defective install of the gasket. The engines I have gotten so far have been really nice, I installed one on my cruiser, it runs great, and have another one "looking" for a bike to build..... regards..