mechanical seal

Gents, i have an oil leak from the mechanical seal which i will now track down the parts to fix[ i did one on my other 13 and it was a mission so not looking forward to it] although i have this issue i have finally got the bike running okay so want to use it for a couple of weeks until the summer ends in England, my question is would it be a major risk to run it for a while possibly getting coolant in the oil, i have been told by someone who knows a bit about 13s that it should be okay but i would appreciate your opinions.
many thanks

Draining the oil pan and finding the plug like this is not funny at all, nor is it good for the engine.

 

Although you can try filling the seal with pastry cream, as the previous owner of my motorcycle did.

 

Thanks for the info, i have every intention of doing the seal and at the moment it is just a small oil leak which i am hoping is going down the weep hole rather than the coolant getting into the engine but will probably take the safer option if the result is going to be the same as your photos

The weep hole provides a pressure relief for the back side of the lip seal on the water pump shaft and the back side of the water pump seal. If the weep hole is plugged neither the lip seal or the water pump seal will perform properly. Both seals need to see atmospheric pressure at the weep hole in order to do their jobs.

The weep hole also provides a point where if either seal fails, they relieve to the weep hole rather than cross contaminating the other system.

The lubricating oil system provides oil pressure to the bearing in the cylinder block where the water pump shaft rides. There is a space between the bearing and the outer casing for the oil to relieve and drain down to the crankcase / oil pan and basically the the oil lip seal on the water pump shaft retains the oil running down the cylinder casting to keep the oil in the crankcase..

Oil that has managed to get in to the crankcase most likely is a head gasket failure at the 4 ports around the cylinder studs that feed oil to the camshaft bearings, since those are pressurized ports and the back side of the o-rings at those 4 ports is the cooling  jacket in the cylinder block or cylinder head.

The 2 cylinder blocks that I have , need new water pump shafts because the erosion on the shafts at the lip seal contact point and the o-ring  seal point on the water pump  shaft at the impeller were found well beyond cleaning up and reusing, so new shafts will be needed. People that don't change their coolant out on a regular basis cause problems like this. the coolant is designed to prevent corrosion as well as removing heat and lubricating internal parts.

Could you get away with running the bike with a oil weep problem? Possibly. Would I do it? Not likely. If I was desperate for transportation and had nothing else to drive, I would use it with caution.

 

Once again, KB's response will require I look at parts diagrams and FSM to fully understand.

Thank you Sir, for your detailed posts that help me self-educate..

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Thank you so much for taking the time to explain the functions of the seals it really helps people such as myself who have a basic knowledge mechanically [but certainly no more than that ]