Hi,
First post in the forum, but long time lurker. I have bought an xt600e 2003 model about 2 years ago. Really love the bike, actually my first big proper bike, and great fun to ride. I have no experience with bike mechanics, but I can manage working with tools and understand diagrams (electronics background).
Since last October I have noticed a weird noise coming from the inside of the engine. The bike has been very forgiving to me as so far I have only been changing oil. As the weather is getting much hotter here in Greece, the bike gets hot very easily and last two days the bike was shutting down.
A knowledgeable friend of mine helped me today to adjust valve clearance and have a look at the bike, see if we can tell where the noise comes from, but before arriving to the noise issue, when removing the gas tank, a pretty strange modification was in front of our eyes. The cylinder head cover was threaded and a blind screw exactly on top of the cam chain top was there. I called the previous owner and asked him about this and he told me that he has seen it after buying the bike, and that it had a tube running to the back of the bike and that it was losing oil from this tube, and because the oil was spitted to the rear wheel, he cut off the tube and capped the screw. I am attaching a picture of this ... device
So my first question is, if anyone has any kind of idea why someone would do such a thing and what the purpose of this thing is and if i should cap it or connect a hose to it.
And of course my second question is about the noise issue. I have recorded some videos but the noise is the same as in this
video . The guy who posted the video states that it was cam chain issue, which was our intial guess, so any idea on how should I proceed in testing the cam chain or any guide available in replacing the cam chain would be very welcome.
Btw I measured cylinder compression and showed me a healthy 11.5 atm, after valve adjustment.
Thanks in advance to any response, and I promise to take serious care of my old lovely lady from now on.
Cheers
Aris