A number of years ago there was a post on how to drill out one of the right front bolts holding the head cover on.  The end result used an external nut with a longer bolt.

Worked perfectly, but the previous owner of my 2000 did not limit themselves to just stripping out that bolt, they did the right rear also, the one with the little seal around the oil passage that provides oil for the cam.

I cannot for the life of me find this discussion again.  It was mentioned that drilling the rear one would require engine removal and complete disassembly, and the author would (perhaps) put together an article about how to do this.

So, I have been thinking about this a lot.  Is there any way to accomplish this repair by gently pressurizing the oil system through the oil filter outlet port?  Would it be possible to blow any metal chips up and out the top of the head?  Am I just deluding myself because I don't want to yank the engine?

I have been looking for diagrams on how the oil is routed through the engine, and not found any.  I would appreciate any help on this, thank you.

You are correct, there was one forum member who just drilled it through and somehow tried to flush out the debris.  Given the construction of the cylinder and head, it seems to me that getting all the chips out would be close to impossible, and since the head gasket is steel, not all of the debris will be soft.  I would remove the head, but I'm pretty conservative when it comes to that sort of stuff.  I really don't want metal chips downstream of my oil filter.

You don't have to pull the whole engine out of the frame to remove the cylinder head.  It's a pretty easy job if you remove the cylinder head studs.  This post provides some details.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1609889036/0

This old post provides a complete description of how the oil travels through the engine.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1695617698


Good luck.  Let us know how it goes.  If you need help, we are just a few keystrokes away.