Yeah, and easy on the throttle for a few MILES really helps to keep them from leaking as you come up to full temp.

 

As I already said I have always let the bike warm up until the rockers are hot to the touch and then easy for the first few miles, so I do not think that is the problem. I am hoping lapping the bases will at least let me know if the cylinders are not flat on the bottom.

 

I've had good luck with hylomar--absolutely no leaks

 

we set our nitro bike up with orings,like a TC.(we also set all evo rebuilds up the same way,0 problems or leaks).be very carefull useing sealents,with some,you`ll never get cylinders back off.if you have a leak with james steel,or cometic gaskets,you`ve got something wrong,fix it,dont just slop it up with something and put it back togrther

 

I agree EVORider; I have 23,000 on my 99, and so far not even a weep of oil anywhere. But I do let it warm up before I ride, and also don't get on it to hard for the first few miles.

 

wondering if ogre25 ever got his cylinder base leak fixed? did you lap your cylinders? if so, what did it cost you? do you know how much material you removed? did you have to compensate by using thicker base gaskets?
i have the same problem. replaced base gaskets twice (harley first, cometics second). neither fixed my leak. it never leaked before the rebuild.
i'm considering lapping cylinders and installing hayden oil fix along with a third set of gaskets. possibly using coppercoat or similar gasket sealer despite my local indy advising against it. not sure who's gaskets i'll pick this time. probably use the base gaskets that come with oil fix and get top and rocker gaskets.
any info you've learned that you'll share is appreciated.

 

I was going to update this thread in a couple days but this seems like a good time. Yes I did buy the lapping ring(about a $100) and lapped my cylinders, my guess is that I removed less then .005 of material as that is what the gap I had when using a straight edge on the base of the cylinder.
I used the Hayden oil fix as I already had it on there and a James metal base gasket top end kit. I also applied a very thin layer of gasket sealer on the base gasket(probably not needed but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to leak). I torqued every thing back to factory specs.
I have put almost 500 miles on it this week after the gasket replacement, following my warm up practice to wait until I feel warmth from the rocker boxes before taking off, and then easy on it for 3 to 4 miles. I am VERY happy to report no oil leaks at all!!! I would like to thank all the people that responded to this thread and pm'ed me.
If you need any more details feel free to pm me.