The good news is that the oil leak is not coming from the sump but it's coming from the Oil cooler where the oil exits the engine and goes into the oil coolers and comes back through the filter and back into the engine. Although to fix this I will have to remove the exhaust headers, drain the oil, drain the coolant, remove the oil cooler and replace the O ring seals on the little metal cylinders that connect the oil cooler to the engine block. Thankfully halfords had the right sized O ring seals in stock and I also put some oversized O ring seals to fill in the gap between the oil cooler and engine block for extra good measure.
One thing however, when draining the oil I did notice these little metal shavings come out into the oil. Now I suspect this are from the main bearings and came off during that time I was starting the engine for the first time trying to get it going. I will change the oil again once the bike has done a few hundred miles as I'll have to treat it like a new engine. Thankfully the metal shavings are big so this doesn't worry me too much. I remember reading that even brand new engine will have tiny metal shavings on the first oil change.
However now that the oil leak was fixed I was able to properly fill the cooling system and get all the air out, so I decided to take it for a small spin around the garage just to see if it will ride.
Good news is it rides really well, sounds great and it also feels like it has the power of a 600cc motorbike. Good news. Now to fix other little things as the brake light doesn't work, and the brakes need looking into and I really want to get those carbs synced as the idling sounds a bit on the rough side.
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