I've got a '98 S1W. Rear cylinder head gasket leaked on the left side. just replaced the gasket, torqued to manual limits but it's still leaking in the same area. Head off again and checked gasket area flatness, barrel and head are within 0.006, infact there's only a few places where it's 0.0015.
Any ideas / advice? Could it be the stud threads have stretched?
I'm using an OEM head gasket (James kit expensive for only one cylinder), which side is up? As there is a bonded metal strip around the bore that extends to around the dowel holes.