dnwong

I will be replacing my cam tower gasket for the second time this year. Does anyone recommend putting a gasket sealant (what brand?) on or just leave it bare. I really don't want to do this again....

robert944h

It's recommended you leave it bare, but we had the same problem with one car (three cam gaskets in one year). First we put bare, then orange flange sealant, both with no luck. Then we used permatex copper spray-a-gasket and it's been running leak free for over a year.

Yabo

I think I put some permetex on it. Frankly, I don't recall which it was. I didnt' really look into it all that much, just grab one that says it can take high heat and seals oil. Honestly there isn't a huge amount of oil pressure in the cam tower, and oil is pretty easy to seal so you really shouldn't need much.

On the other hand.. if you do need to do this again, the more junk you put on there the bigger pain it will be to take off.. you know, when you drop one of the cam tower bolts inside trying to bolt it down.

Legoland951

Leave it bare as there is an oil passage going from the head to the camtower and if you get sealant there, you have problems. If you are doing it more than once every few years, you are not installing it properly. The torque spec is very low and if you overtorque, it will cause the gasket to rip. Also you will have to evenly torque the camtower down in the circular pattern or the X pattern from very low torque the first time (to all the bolts) to the proper spec the second time. The reason is if you torque to spec only one corner on your first bolt, you are torquing the cam tower down at an angle causing the gasket to fail.

PorscheDoc

There is a sealant from permatex (Prime seal, gasket seal 3)that is used on airplanes that would work good as long as you make sure the oil passages are not blocked. It goes on in a very thin layer, almost like water. I use that on a lot of gaskets now, and don't have problems with leakage.

One thing you need to do though, is take a straight edge to your cam tower and make sure it is not warped. I have seen that a couple times now. If it is warped, it isn't going to seal.

dnwong

The guys on 944online suggested that I use the permatex indian head product. Anyone have thoughts on this.

http://www.permatex.com/documents/td...tive/20539.pdf

What is the operating temperature range the cam tower sees?

931guru

Try Hylomar... Use it once, and you'll use it for life!

PorscheDoc

Another good product.

MyBlackCar

+1. If it is good enough for Rolls Royce, it is good enough for Porsche.

dnwong

Finally found some. Man this stuff is hard to get. Nobody carries it. Okay, how much do I put on. Do you just spread it on with you fingers?

M758

I have done 5-6 of these. Always dry and never an issue. I do always take car to follow the torque sequence in the manual.