choinga

I had a head gasket job done by my shop about a month or so ago. I was dinking around with my idle setting post-Vitesse MAF & Piggyback install in the garage today and noticed the burning oil smell and smoke coming up out of the engine bay. After poking around, I can cleary see right on the last exhaust cylinder (one closest to the firewall) a leak in what looks like might be around that seal or individual gasket and it's dripping right down on to the exhaust manifold. None of the other 3 are leaking at all.

I took the best pic I could get from under the car - it's pointing back up to the back part of the cam tower and the exhuast manifold.

Is this the head gasket leaking? The cam tower gasket or the rear seal? I took a pic of the top of the rear cork seal - seems OK up top, but don't know if they ever leak from there.

Interestingly enough, my oil pressure gauge yesterday started sticking at 4.5 - not sure if these two events are related.

On a side note, in a case like this is it reasonable for a shop to cover this or at least part of the repair/replacement under warranty. I've never had anything happen like this before and my shop guys are a great group - very Porsche knowlegeable. I know #$%& happens, but is it common to have all these replaced and they fail within a month?

SamGrant951

Those bolts (3, 10mm) on the rear cork gasket like to loosen up once they get warm. Mine started leaking after a few hundred miles as well, tightened them up and they have been fine ever since.

My cam tower bolts also loosened up after a few heat cycles. I just keep an eye on them and torque them every few months...no leaks from there yet - knock on wood -

choinga

thanks - see the other thread I posted about the proper torque on the 15 cam bolts...my shop apparently forgot to torque these down after the got them all seated...the 3 I got my torque wrench on to test all showed only 5 to 7 ft/lb or torque. FSM says they should be 14 ft/lb. I'd believe that after a few heat cycles they can back out - but no way they've all backed out 2/3'rds of the required torque. The messed up thing is that I've driven about 600 miles like this - god knows how bad it could have been...lucky it reared it's head when I was working on getting my idle right in the garage and not on the freeway in 3rd gear at 6000RPM @ 15PSI...

I was able to get a wrench on one of the bolts on the rear seal and got it turn almost a full revolution pretty easily after re-seating the wrench on it a few times. Those are a PITA to get too...

So, I'm calling my shop tomorrow and am going to see if I can get them to replace both the cam gasket and the cork seal on their dime.

I knew I should have just done the HG job myself...I'd probably still be working on it but at least I'd know what had been done...and learned a helluva lot in the process...

Wipeout

Be careful when doing the rear cam seal, I stripped one of the holes in the cam housing without even trying!

choinga

thanks, i'm leaving it alone for now - it's going to my shop and they can fix it properly.