Oil Leak at Cylinder Head Studs. Huh?

[jgrm1]

Why is oil leaking from the cylinder head studs on my S2R1000?  I noticed while cleaning the bike after the last ride that oil is seeping past the threads of the four cylinder head studs on the horizontal cylinder and oil and dirt are collecting on top of the nuts.

Do I simply have to re-torque the head nuts or is this indicative of a more ominous problem?

Thanks,
Jeff   

[Speeddog]

The head nuts are greased at assembly by the factory, this *may* be what's looking like oil.

But, an S2R1000 isn't new.

Clean 'em off good and run the engine a bit, see if it comes back.

[jgrm1]

But, an S2R1000 isn't new.

I bought this one in February with only 73 miles on it, so it's close to new.  She now has ~2400 miles.  I'll take your advice about cleaning the nuts and keeping an eye on them since I don't have the special tool to properly re-torque the nuts anyway. 

-Jeff

[Speeddog]

Given that mileage, it's probably just the grease.

A good cleaning will be worth it, just so they don't get so nasty looking.

But keep an eye on it.

[scott_araujo]

Not sure if it's the same but the studs and nuts on the top of the cyl heads on my '03 800 were coated in Cosmoline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmoline

It's brown and gunky and will run down all over things when it gets hot.  If not cleaned off it tends to become permanent.  I bought mine used and it was already baked on.  I'm not picky and have never put much effort into getting it off.

Scott

[DarkStaR]

I noticed this too... a long time ago.  I just cleaned the excess and left the rest.