Where’s this leaking oil coming from?

[poppadre]

Started up my bike and to my surprise I am getting a lot of oil dripping on the left side under the engine and smoking off the exhaust. Was not like this when I put it away. Is this leak just coming from the valve covers? Is that the only gasket I need to get?

[Aussie81Interstate]

Your pictures seem to indicate the valve cover gasket - can you carefully tighten the valve cover bolts - see if they need to be tensioned - but be careful-they are easy to strip threads in the head.

You might also need some new seals.

[DaveO430]

Could be the shifter shaft seal. NO, don't tighten the valve cover bolts unless they are actually loose, they have a stop shoulder on them, you turn them in until they stop and that's it. Lots of them have been broken or stripped because someone thought they could tighten them a little more.

[Winnipeg]

I get coolant leakage at that exact spot coming from coolant tubes above. Are you sure it’s oil? Only happens during winter storage. Just a thought.

[Aussie81Interstate]

Wiping under the valve cover with a rag will soon determine if it is oil or something else. Again you can check the tightness of the cover bolts - but as mentioned do it carefully - I had 2 stripped holes on the right hand side which needed to be heli coiled - and I also replaced the old rubbers on the cover bolts with new ones - this made a big difference and stopped the leaks I had very quickly. The reason as mentioned above - if over tightened will cause damage. The old rubbers will not put enough pressure on the cover when the bolt is tightened correctly causing the slow leaks as they have gone hard with age. The same goes for the valve cover gaskets as well - it's worth changing them as well.

Have fun

[Hoosier Jack]

I'm pretty sure that the torque value on those bolts are 9 ft lbs and that is not much.