Oil on front of motor

This is going to be hard to describe but I'm going to try anyway. What LOOKS like a gap between the head gasket and the seating surface may not actually be. I thought I had the same issue so I took the acorns off, lifted the top of the heat sink off the motor so I could examine how it seats against the gasket. Turns out there is a circular raised area that meets up with the metal head gasket in such a way that it is will seal even though visually it looks like there is a slight gap between gasket and engine head, it is in fact sealed. Okay am I crazy? Can you check haoleboy and see if yours is like that?

I swapped out the acorns for some shouldered hex nuts but now I understand why the head doesn't *appear* to seat against the gasket once properly torqued to ~130 in/lbs.

Tom, I've gone back to re-read this thread and my above post.... Is that the area you were telling us to lap with sand paper? It's a perfect circle almost same diameter as gasket opening and seems to be embossedf maybe 1/32 inch on the underside of the head where it is supposed to meet the gasket..

Okay, sounds like you're up and running and I don't blame you for not wanting to try to fix what's not broken. Mine is the same exact engine probably. You'll probably be all good now, but I still want to hear what 2door or the other experts recommend we do...

Okay good. Thanks for the explanation and perhaps I will develop some karate skills in the process. These bikes are so fun. Thanks for the great advice again.

Groove.

Haoleboy - sorry the acorns are just those chrome hex nuts with the domed top. Some people have had issues with those bottoming out on the top of the studs. And yeah, we'll be able to overhaul these little guys just fine when they need it (hopefully LOL). It's fun for me to learn mechanical skills. You worked on vw's so you have some know how. My only exposure had been assembling gas radio control cars so this is all new to me.