putting sealant on cam carriers ?

[schakal]

as most of you allready know ,i have been having a massive oil leak
problem with this cylinder head which stops me from getting my car back on the road .

however i really need to get this sorted and get my car back on the road
and enjoy driving once again .

could anyone in the know tell me if the cam carriers can be
taken out for applying sealent on the faces without taking the
cams or disturbing the timing ??

by the way the engine is fitted to the car allready and
i dont really want to take it out unless absolutely necessary
which will mean draining all the fluids etc once again :?

[MatBrown]

I would say not, as there is a lot of tension on the pulleys with the belt, if you were to remove the carriers the cams will surely move.


Mat.

[Evogone]

I would say not, as there is a lot of tension on the pulleys with the belt, if you were to remove the carriers the cams will surely move.


Mat.

Cam carriers leaked on my head too..

Engine stays in but its cam belt off etc to sort..

[Wobba]

The carriers are part of what hold the cams in. When you take them off or release tension they will pop out anyway thus messing up the timing. The timing is easy mate.

Car on stands at front, driver wheel off, jack engine under sump a tiny bit with plank of wood to protect sump, undo main engine mounts bolts - remove mount.

Wheel off, pulley cover off, aux pulley off(may wanna slacken the aux belt first, if you dont know how...search forums), exposes the crank pulley. Pop the bolt you just took off back onto the crank pulley and crank clockwise until the white marks line up at bottom. This is TDC (top dead centre). You can confirm this by testing the depth to the piston faces through the spark plug holes. Lock engine if you want, its not gonna go anywhere so maybe no point really...

May need to use the jack a bit under the sump to help with the covers and bolts...Undo the cam pulley cover, get sparks out and leads, and remove spark tray:

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w102/barneywobba/Tappets/DSC01227.jpg

Undo/remove cam cover:

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w102/barneywobba/Tappets/DSC01230.jpg

Mark cam position at TDC!

Get a bolt into the cambelt tensioner hole, loosen the tensioner bolt, slack off pulley using the bolt you have put in, counting revolutions (if you wanna remember what tension the belt was at, will save time later) until belt slack enough round cams.

GRADUALLY undo the bolts to the carriers and the big torx bolt at pulley cover bit. If you just undo em, the tension from the cams/tappets can damage the camseals, so gradually, bit by bit till you can remove directly upwards. Cam and pulley will then be exposed and you can remove them. Do not get them mixed up!

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w102/barneywobba/Tappets/DSC01233.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w102/barneywobba/Tappets/DSC01237.jpg

CAREFULLY inspect the faces of the carriers, work out which bits you need to apply sealant (not all do as they do not make contact on some inner sections). Withdraw the small cam plug (looks like mini core plug):

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w102/barneywobba/Tappets/DSC01239.jpg

Inspect the plastic cam seals, they have little springs on them. Note their position in head channels before removing.

Clean surfaces. Do not damage them, so no hammers etc! Apply sealant. I used some on the little cam plug as well :) Clean excess oil out of the cam seal areas. It may leak oil for a while from here, mine did, then stopped.

May want to use some old oil on cam lobes or graphogen paste. Refit. Cams on in the same place you took them off, gradually torque up cam carriers, make sure the seals are in correct location!!! Cams may want to move out of position, so find some cam locking tools and lock them. Can turn cams with spanner on pulley bolt. Cambelt on, tension up, tighten tensioner pulley bolt...the rest is a reverse of what you already did...

May be worth leaving the sealant to cure for a while, up to you.

Notes:

You don't need masses of sealant. Don't get it in the head, it blocks passageways.
Torque the carriers up correctly.
Only apply GENTLE hand tightening to the camcover bolts, they shear easily.
If you are scared you ****ed up the timing, hand crank the engine using the crank pulley once it's all back together. Any loud knocks or the cranking becomes impossible you may have incorrect timing.
Once all done, run engine at idle for a while, listen or squeaks etc, observe any oil leaks, if there is oil, dont panic just yet.
Go for a drive, let car open up a bit. later check for leaks, hopefully it has stopped.

That's a vague guide from Wobba whilst at work, so not by any means a perfect guide!

[robi1000]

I would just like to add, that it's very important that you undo the cam carrier bolts slowly. Say half or one turn at the time every bolt on the carriers. You can do it in 8 pattern. The point of all this is that you left the cam carriers vertically, otherwise you can damage your cams. It's not rocket science, but some attention is needed.

[robi1000]

Grrr no edit button... I meant "lift" not left. :rant:

[Wobba]

lol:


GRADUALLY undo the bolts to the carriers and the big torx bolt at pulley cover bit. If you just undo em, the tension from the cams/tappets can damage the camseals, so gradually, bit by bit till you can remove directly upwards.

I win!!

:D

[robi1000]

Yeah I know, what I should write is that you can damage cam's thrust bearing. That leads to cracks, cracks lead to broken bearing, that leads to seized cam, that leads to snapped cambelt, that leads to bent valves, that leads to damaged pistons, that leads to the very sad situation when you suddenly have very empty wallet... :lol: