Yesterday i replaced the D/S rear end seal gasket on my cam towers(valve covers).

There is a metal plate that bolts on the end of the cam tower that is secured with 3 bolts....but has 4 holes.

My question, what is the 4th hole for? There is a hole in the cam tower that lines up with the hole in the metal end cover, but there are no threads in that hole...and obviously it's not an oil passage or it would spew oil all over the place.

Just curious.

Oh, and after i replaced the end seal i took the car for a test drive, and when i pulled up and shut her down i heard a metallic scrape under the hood. So i get out and look, and the idler behind the harmonic balancer looks like it walked itself forward, and now the freakin' bolt is rubbing on the back side of the balancer. I understand there's some kind of nylon bushing in there or something, so i guess i'll be changing that next.

LOL....it never ends.

 

If I remember right, fourth hole is there just to allow same raw casting to be used to make parts for both heads. On each head there are 3 bolts but one hole is different.

 

That extra hole is there so that you waste endless hours hunting around your workshop for that one bolt that "got away"...

 

Hehe

 

LOL, which is exactly what i did SharkSkin.

 

See? The Porsche engineers knew exactly what they were doing.

 

I even went so far as to find a suitable replacement bolt in my spare bolts tray.

Then i tried to put it in and realized i'd just wasted oh, 1/2 hour of my life for no reason.

LOL...