Valve cover problem.

[babemagnet]

Hi All,
I have been washing my FZS1000 ready for my annual tour of Spain and have noticed that the sockets on top of the engine where the two water jacket pipes come through are both full of water. Presumably there should be drain holes somewhere which are blocked. this water will obviously boil off once the engine heats up but the two pipes are already showing signs of corrosion and will at some point corrode through completely.
Has anyone else encountered this and if so how did you manage to unblock any drain holes through all the crap that sits on top of the engine?

[Fazerjon]

all the crap that sits on top of the engine?

First thing would be to remove the AIS system if you haven't already done so, then you'll be able to see and access a lot more of the top of the engine. There are loads of posts on here about AIS removal and Pats motorcycle page provides step by step instructions on how to do it. I'm not 100% sure where the water drains out of though.

[PieEater]

I don't believe that there are any drain holes, it would be pretty difficult if not impossible to have any. I'm due to do my 50k valve check soon so I'll probably remove any corrosion from the spigots and treat them with some anti-corrosion paint while I've got the rocker box cover off.

[RMT1983]

there are drain holes and drain out of the left side of the cylinder head, you should notice a hole............. a good blast of air should do the job, but as always, don't try doing it whilst the plugs are out or you will risk loosing crud into the head and you don't want that!!!

[PieEater]

Happy to stand corrected, although it doesn't seem to work very well as my spigots showed corrosion when I did the 25k valve check and the bike doesn't see the rain.

[RMT1983]

yeah but the problem with salt water is the water evaporates, the salt doesn't