joseph mitro

so today was the day of truth. exactly two years to the day after i first purchased my 944S, i set out on a mission to restart my engine after a complete rebuild. this morning was filled with some tense moments as i could not get oil pressure to build, then tried several times in vain to start the engine with everything plugged up. i even heard a loud bang. checked the head - everything was still intact. cams still in time, cam chain still intact. the timing belt was still on , the TDC marks on the cam pulley and the flywheel still lined up, so everything still looked ok.

went shopping, ate mexican food. came back tonight and again tried to start it up. after the fourth try - vroomm,, the engine came to life!!! but then i shut it off about 10 seconds later there was something smoking badly under the hood. turns out it was the ceramic paint on the headers heating up and giving off lots of smoke. smelled bad, too.

the main problem, however, is i found a BAD oil leak right in front of the camshaft cover. i mean, it almost leaks like a sieve. after only ten seconds, there must be a large glob of mobil 1 all over the front of the engine. it's hard to see in this photo, but if you look close you can see a thin coating of gold oil over the metal. i am suspecting it is the front camshaft bridge, as the cam tower seal itself looks ok. what do you think? and what should i do? here's a photo:

Riff

Hi Joseph-

Having never removed the cams from my S2, I don't think I could be much help. Only thing I have done is replace the chain tensioner. The only thing I would think is when you put the cam cover back on the motor, did you happen to use any RTV or similar on the transitions where the elevation changes? From my understanding that is where the potential for leaks is the greatest since the surfaces are not flat. Also (I know you probably did this correctly, but as a check) did you did do the bolt tightening in the proper criss-cross pattern for the cam cover?

joseph mitro

i used 3M adhesive tack on the gasket-to-cam cover surface, but not the gasket-to-head surface. i did try to use the criss cross method for torquing the bolts, but maybe didn't pay that close attention to it. how did you do it?

aribop

Joseph,
Did you use Loctite 574 on the bridge to head surface? That could be one point of leakage. Also it takes a good bit of RTV in the corners of the cam cover and gasket surface.
Good luck.

nine-44

You'll probably want to use some case seal for the metal to metal surface of the cam bridge to head surface. Yamabond 4 is excellent for that also Wurth makes two case sealants meant for macine surface sealing. The Green and Orange are just two different thicknesses for filling different gaps. I used to work at a P-car dealer and we ended up using the Yamabond 4. I'd bet over half the shop was dirtbike junkies and swore by the stuff. We also used it for balance shaft housings and other machine fit surfaces like Carerra crank cases. Good luck man

Riff

When I did my chain tensioner, I used RTV on both surfaces cover-to-gasket and gasket-to-head in order to cover my bases. This would be the easiest thing to do, simply remove the cover, clean and re-torque it down.

IIRC you begin in the middle with a box pattern, 4 middlemost holes to from the box. Then begin to cross over to the diagonal hole farthest away from the last one torqued, but next working outwards. Essentially you want to make a bigger and bigger X pattern working outwards. I believe the thinking is that this will tighten down the sides evenly working from the middle outwards. Does this make any sense??

Good Luck,

joseph mitro

thanks everybody. yes, i did use loctite 574 on the bridge to head surface like the manual says to do. i now have the cam cover off, and looking at it i think it was probably a bad gasket seal. there is oil on TOP of the bearing bridge, indicating it probably came from a bad gasket seal and not the bearing bridge to head surface.

so you guys are saying i should use black RTV gasket sealant on the upper and lower surfaces of the cam tower gasket?

nine-44

I'd suggest some sort of gasket sealant in the corners, the black should work. I don't have a tube with the suggested uses in front of me tho. I'm thinking that I used the brown gasket maker in the corners of my oil pan, I don't recall exactly tho.Sorry I'm not a ton of help going off memory.

Macfreak007

Only use the sealant/gasket maker in the corners, this should be any easy fix for you. Sorry mine leaked a little at first, but I got it fixed.

joseph mitro

allright, so i got the cover cleaned up and the gasket cleaned as well. i used permatex ultra black RTV high temperature gasket sealant (had it laying around since i was initially going to use it for the oilpan gasket). i used sealant on the entire gasket, but especially around the corners. i'll let it cure overnight, and see what happens tomorrow.

Granite 944

Hey! it came alive!.......thats worth a ton right there! Not to worry, you'll get it sorted out right quick. Heck, its just a little oil leak. Congrats!

AznDrgn

Aren't you supposed to break in an engine with regular dino oil first and then if you want to change you change it over after the first oil change? I've always been told to use dino oil first, not sure why but just what I've been told.

Granite 944

I've heard that also. Something to do with the fact that synthetic is so much better as a lubricant, that it slows down the intial breakin or seating of parts. I have nothing to back this up right now other than the fact that I believe it.

Serge944

Every previous rebuild Ive read about was broken in by conventional oil.

pete944

Is the leak coming from the valve cover? Make sure that the gasket isn't kinked at the corner. I didn't use any sealant on the valve cover when I replaced the gasket. It's one of the few parts of the car that doesn't leak.