Mongo

After going ***** to the walls after sitting 5 days, I notice there is a scent of oil that fills my interior when my windows were down today during hard accelerations. I know I have rear cam plugs leaking (all 4 in that matter, DOH), but could this be what I'm smelling? Spark plug seals are also toast. I need to do the valve covers, but there's no time and it would probably take 2 days knowing my schedule.

blown 87

My theory has always been when there is a problem, fix the known problems first.

You know you have some oil leaks, fix the ones you know of first.

soontobered84

I had the same problem with my '89. (as Sean will attest when I changed my shocks in his driveway) What was happening at idle was tere was not as much oil in the valve covers and there would be no leaks, but when I revved the engine, the increased engine speed would send copious amounts of oil into the upper parts of the engine and those areas prone to do so, would leak oil onto the manifold and the oily smell would enter the car. I replaced the cam cover bolt grommets that were leaking and no more oil leak or smell.

devilinblack

Different year and engine, but when my rear cam seals were leaking I got the burning oil smell fairly regularly.

Bill51sdr

Most certainly the rear cam seals Andy. They tend to drip right onto the exhaust manifold down pipe.

SharkSkin

Sounds like a fire waiting to happen of one of those seals decides to let go...

hacker-pschorr

+1*infinity

Or swtich to non-synthetic oil and all of your leaks will go away

Mongo

Great... fire is the last thing I want to hear right now.

SharkSkin

Andy, if it's a slow, occasional drip it's unlikely to catch fire. If the drip turns into a gusher, all bets are off though.

Mongo

It's not gushing that's for sure. I have all the parts (valve cover gaskets, 8 spark plug seals and all 4 rear cam plugs) necessary to get it done, but just no damn time to work on it. I would like to repaint those valve covers though that's for sure. Silver most likely, nothing like what I wanted to do originally.

JHowell37

On an S4 it takes less then an hour per side. If you remove the cap that secures the rear of the cams, make sure you follow the procedure in the WSM to secure it. And make certain you use some of the orange loctite when you reinstall that cap or it will leak. I tried silicone sealant like Yamabond on mine and it was useless.

86'928S MeteorGrey

Loctite 574 is the stuff. I think 928 Intl. carries it if you can't find it around there.

also, the link below shows the proceedure for sealing the cams as per the WSM. It's the factory service technician video.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4629118/12377608

Mrmerlin

Yama bond can be used on the portion of where the cap meets the head. ( this is so the cam cover gasket will have a better seal at the junction)
574 is used to seal the cap to the head surface

Mongo

My Alternative to Loctive 574 at a much cheaper price.

EXACT SAME STUFF....not ****ting you either...