John_AZ

I used the Kaco seal last summer when I did the clutch on the 1987 924S.

I have probably done 8 to 10 RMSs on my various Porsches over the years and I just use the black OEM RMS that fit the car. The manufactures varied.

I do believe the Elring seal to be superior in material and design.

I did see a link that used a similiar seal installation tool:
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/flywhe...valwarning.htm


John

tyro

Buy the Elring seal (orange-black), Curil-T for the seal OD, and most importantly - P234 from Sir Tools, the oil seal arbor.

I tried installing by other methods which required doing the job three times! Ahh, the memories.

Search under my name for more information on this subject. Also, here are some photos of the seal, etc.

Best of luck!

John_AZ

Thanks from me as well tyro, impressive link and photos.
I used your photos when I did the seal on my '87.

One other thing on the Kaco seal if anyone does use it. The Kaco seal is about 1 "rib" shorter in height than the red seal shown my picture (red & black seal). I did install it (Kaco) until the seal bottomed.

John

Dare

Thanks for the pics/pointers. Definitely interesting reading in your earlier threads. Any speculation why the oil seal arbor was so important in your case? Was that the only thing you did differently on your last try?

Tom M'Guinn

I'm sure there are plenty of guys you were fine with home made drivers.

In my case, however, I originally installed mine with a PVC pipe driver while building the motor on a stand -- perfect conditions, good lighting, everything clean and dry, went in straight, etc. It leaked.

When I changed my clutch, I used the factory tool, on my back, with oil dripping on my head, hard to see, etc. No leak.

Both times I used Elring and Curil T.

tyro

I suspect the seal not lined up with the crank was the problem. Since the arbor bolts to the crank, how can it go wrong?

The seal on the car at the moment was installed by the arbor nearly three years ago. I cannot complain. The little amount of money it cost was worth it in my opinion for not having to do the job again.

I'd think someone has the arbor which you could borrow or rent? I'd consider sending mine for a nominal fee assuming I get it back..

krazykarl

I got the same result when installing an elring RMS while using the arbor tool. Confusing part is there isn't a lip on the metal around the slot so I'm not sure why it happened.

Mike C.

I used a 4 inch PVC pipe end cap turned down slightly to get the correct OD. It did work...

Dare

Success at last! After two failed attempts I finally got a seal to go in without tearing. Like krazykarl, I didn’t think the edges of the pry slot were particularly sharp or jagged. But after pondering the last failure for I bit I concluded that pry slot must be acting like a shear, with the pressure on the seal forcing the plastic edge to tear rather than deform into the bore.

With that in mind I took a dremel and a small triangle file and carefully rounded all three edges of the pry slot. I didn’t take off much, just enough knock down the edge. I then put a drop of oil on my finger and rubbed it over the edges. I also thought it might be better for the seal to start without the Curil-T. So when I applied it, I only covered about 2/3rds of the edge of the seal, leaving the lip dry.

Despite all the recommendations to use the Porsche tool I went ahead and used my homemade tool. (Thanks to Jess, BTW, for offering to loan me his). Given the design, I can't think of any logical reason why my tool shouldn’t work reliably. Of course I won’t really know until I get the engine back in and run it for awhile. But in the interest of exploring a cheaper alternative to the factory tool I'm willing to take the risk of having to reseal it.

For those who are interested here are the details on the tool:
The ring is a standard size 4” threaded drain cover with the center cut out and few of the leading threads filed down. The depth of the seal bore is about 16mm, and the seal itself is about 12mm. This means the tool has to extend into the bore about 4mm, which it can’t do with the leading threads in the way. I ended up removing about 8mm of threads to make it easier to see seal as it goes in.

The studs are M10x1.25 exhaust studs from Napa, part number 600-1814. They come two to a package, with nuts, for about $10 for two packages.

The plate is 1.5mm steel from Home Depot. The holes are 60mm center-to-center, arranged on a circle with a radius of 34.641mm.

When driving the seal I carefully measured the distance between the front of the metal plate and the surface of the block at various points around the edge of the tool. At no point was the difference between these measurements more than 0.75mm, implying that the seal was true to the block to within 0.5 degrees. I pressed the seal in as far as it would go, which came out to just under 4mm below the block surface.

As I said before there’s no way to know if all this worked until I run the engine. When I get that far I’ll report back with the (hopefully positive) results.

John_AZ

Great news!!

What seal did you end up using?
John

xsboost90

just did a RMS in my turbo- its leaking already- pressed it all the way in ,so there goes that theory.

Dare

Elring.

Dare

Crap. Why is this so damn hard?