David Salama

Well. Deja Vu. I've blown another camhousing gasket. This is the fourth blown gasket in a little more than 1 year. As you recall, I have been dealing with the issue of excessive crankcase pressure with a failed leakdown test, leading to excessive oil leaks. I have "temporized" the situation with an original design crankcase check valve K&N breather system off my oil fill tube. Oil leaks were reduced with this vent. I have however, been further stressing my engine with the introduction of the Aquamist water alcohol injection system. I have briefly turned up the boost to 20 psi with this system without detonation. After a session at Lowes Motor Speedway at 15psi, however, my camhousing gasket began to leak. Lots of burnt oil smoke as the leak is from the rear corner of the gasket over the exhaust manifold. I was able to stop the leak for a couple weeks by tightening down the camhousing lower bolts. I have a factory gasket plus Yamabond sealing the camhousing to the head. At least the Yamabond allowed me to reseal the leak with further torquing. I have now ordered a custom cut thicker gasket from Eurowerks in Charlotte to see if improper mating between my head and camhousing is the culprit. The thicker design will help seal small flaws in the surface. I am concerned that the bolts also work themselves loose. Does anyone use any Locktite on these bolts? Do they need to be retorqued ever? I can do the whole job in about 5 hours now, so I still feel this is worth repairing versus taking on the entire rebuild. The car is still incredibly strong and I would like to get it back on the dyno ASAP with Keith and Ian to tweak and tune the Aquamist system and big injectors. Can't wait to get it running again.

keith

Yeah, and we should measure your crankcase pressure at that time to see how it stacks up against "average" cars!

I'll tell you what - why don't you try another cam housing as well with the gasket replacement (I've got one of mine at the shop - just use your cam and lifters [keep the lifters matched to their cam lobes] to eliminate the cam housing as a trouble area.

What'd'ya think?

David Salama

You've got that high performance cam in there
Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Anything different is good. If you have'nt sent out the gasket yet, why don't I swing by the shop and pick it all up some time. When is a good time for you? Thanks Keith. By the way, who are you going to get for the dyno. Werx Motorsports (mobile dyno)has'nt answered my messages.

RJP 951

David, I use blue Locktite on pretty much everywhere. Just a little added assurance in my view, but are there reasons not to use it?

Good luck
Ron

951Tom

Hi David, I don't know if you've tried this, but could your oil pressure be too high therefore blowing out the gaskets? Maybe your oil pressure relief valve is bad. Have you put a real pressure gauge on the oil cooler housing port?

David Salama

Havent checked my oil pressure other than with the stock guage. I have changed my oil pressure relief valve o-rings last year, and the valve appeared operational.

Legoland951

I wouldn't use the loctite because I wouldn't want to strip that 6mm allen bolt that locks the cam housing down inside the housing....also the thicker gasket, does it affect the timing belt by increasing the distance of the cam to the crank? I am not sure but I would look into that.

David Salama

Well, I got my camhousing back on last night. Thanks to Jim at Eurowerks for the custom thick camhousing gasket and advise. The original Porsche was redesigned thinner and has subsequently been a problem area. It also has graphite on it making it likely to slide out! With my custom gasket, I hope that I will have better luck. Just some tips on installation. Make sure the camhousing is not driping oil on the new gasket on installation. Degrease everything so that all surfaces are dry. This includes getting the oil out of the bolt holes in the head. This is accomplished by using several q-tips. With oil in the hole, the bolts won't torque properly. My gasket was put on dry with no gasket maker or Yamabond. I feel good about the changes. We will see how it goes.