Chucez

While I was changing my head gasket to an eristic gasket (i know i know), I decided to spray it with that copper sealer that most people spray on their head gaskets during engine builds. I put everything together and started the engine and everything seemed fine save for a code 21 and 24 that would blink. periodically. After a long day i called it quits and waited to work on the car the following day.

The next day, I'm sitting there letting the car idle and I notice that there's oil dripping onto the driveway, which I trace back to the head area. I say oh great, this is what i get for going with eristic.

I tell myself, "maybe I didn't torque everything down well enough maybe that's why the head is leaking oils." I pull off the cams to torque all the head bolts down to 85 ft-lbs, which is what the majority of the head bolts measure after adding the 180 degrees to the 25 ft-lbs.

While pulling the cams off, i did notice that there was a lot of oil around the cam seal, but I really didn't think anything of it because i was sure the head gasket was what was leaking.

After putting everything back together, I run the car for a couple minutes and sure enough there's still a leak; this time it's worse. I go and buy some of that UV dye and pour it in with the oil.

Stupid me, didn't bother degreasing the engine before running it with the UV dye.

With the UV dye I found that there's a leak that's only coming from the front part of the engine, and it's leaking on both the intake and exhaust sides of the front of the engine. I quickly assumed that I put the head gasket on wrong so I took everything apart again.

However, before I took the head off, I looked at the rear timing cover and saw a lot of oil running down its walls. I also found a lout of oil leaking from the cam seals.

Now I can't tell if it's the cam seals that are causing the big leak, or the head gasket with the copper spray that may have possibly been installed incorrectly.

Anyone have the leaky cam seal problem before? what kind of grease did you use to grease the lip? Did you grease the inside and outside of the seal? did you coat the sealing surfaces with the ultra high temp black RTV?

How much oil were you losing as a result of the leaking cam seals?

Thanks in advance.

Kaiser

iTrader: (1)

Did you put in new cam seals when you did the head gasket?

Chucez

yes I did. I know the repair manual says to oil the inside lip with grease, but do you also grease the outside lip probably shoulda done that.

anyway i'm gonna push those seals out and put everything back and see if it still leaks afterward.

Good thing this isn't my daily.