I would have used RTV blue for the WP gasket the Ptex seems to dry out over time

 

I remember seeing that thread, but wasn't sure what I was looking for and kind of forgot about it.

Let me go look right now. If I can't figure it out, maybe I'll get a photo and post it (but probably tomorrow). The only thing I was expecting to do in there was replacing the tensioner pads.

 

You should have masked those areas off.

When I removed the factory installed valve covers on my 90' S4, I noticed a couple spots where Porsche had used what looked like a silicone adhesive in two spots on each cylinder bank. Those spots looked like a possible seal problem areas. Other than that, the gaskets were installed by the factory without an adhesive. So, when I reinstalled them, I applied a similar technique.

I would recommend that you polish the valve cover gasket seating surfaces using 1000 and 2000 grit sand paper (found at most automotive supply stores). Then coat those valve cover gasket seating surfaces (as a minimum) with a spray can of matching color or clear Duplicolor brand engine enamel. Use at least two coats of paint. I would paint the entire bottom side, as I did with mine.

 

Crap.

I take it this is not what I wanted to see.



So... that pretty much kills half my plans for this weekend. No replacement pins on hand. And I probably don't want to let this go, right?

I should have caught this sooner; thanks for pointing it out, though. Much better now than getting it buttoned up and then realizing I missed something.

Off to read up on what it's going to take to do this. I'm guessing pop off the cam caps (hoping I can find the right driver for the funky bolts), put the pins in, replace the cam caps (sealing with Loctite 574). So there'll just be pins there, with no rubber caps, then, right?

 

Borland, FWIW, I was following the advice of a couple of people in the thread "Powder coating intake/cam covers/etc. best practices (for the zillionth time!)", who had blasted/stripped down to metal and left it that way.

Thanks for your comments, as always. More food for thought.

 

Ed swap out the pins Roger has them use 574 on the caps if the round end seals aore weeping now is time the swap them out as well.. all of those WYIT

 

I keep a can of this in the garage.

And another in the back of my sock drawer, so?

 

Pins and the seals for the rear.

 

I do use a bit of drie bond, in the past used red RTV, on the spark plug seals, and on my car I gooped it all the way around the cam cover gasket. Didn't want any leaks. Overkill, but that was how I rolled.

Also, there is an equivalent to Drie Bond, it's made by Victor Reinz, called Reinzosil. That's what I've been using. Get it from Roger.

 

Hey, that's weird. I thought these caps were replaced by pins during MY '87 or '88?

 

Ed,

The problem with the cam bearing plugs was solved in '88. The "fix for the field" for the '87s were plain aluminum pins. The production engines had inserts that looked like the '87 plugs, but they had pins inside them that solved the problem. If you are working on your '90 the stock plugs are fine.

 

Earl, that's terrific news; I've only loosened one cam cap bolt (just to see if I'd succeed on the hardest-to-access one) and moved on to other stuff.

If what you say is true, than I can just retighten that bolt, finish doing the tensioner pads on the left side (I did the right side yesterday evening), and I'd be ready to put the covers back on.

However, I'm still a little worried about this; what's with post #24 in the thread "87 low oil pressure Update lost the plug"? It shows a replacement pin as well as "the original plug" and the "original plug" looks like mine (as far as I can tell) and includes a pin (like mine does; I can see the outline of it on the plug).

And then post #42 in that same thread shows yet another set of plugs, but those seem to have shorter pins than the one in post #24. Perhaps those are the ones that were dropping out because the pins were too short.

So... I'm hoping that the history of this was that they originally had short pin plugs in '87, and then longer pin plugs later, and that they supplied longer pins (to be used instead of, or inside of the original plugs?) to fix the '87s, and cars after that had plugs with longer pins and those don't fail. I wouldn't mind some confirmation of all this!

 

So... I'm hoping that the history of this was that they originally had short pin plugs in '87, and then longer pin plugs later, and that they supplied longer pins (to be used instead of, or inside of the original plugs?) to fix the '87s, and cars after that had plugs with longer pins and those don't fail.
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Yes, the replacement "fix" for the '87s were plain pins with no black plastic, but the '88 and later plugs were the long pins cast into the black plastic, so they look the same as the defective '87 plugs.

Even though the '88 and later look similar, I think they also changed the black plastic so it does not deform as easily. The '87 black plastic has the solidity of chewing gum. Thats why they fall out. I have changed a bunch of them and you can easily deform them between your fingers.

The only thing that the plug does is fill the oil hole that lubed the cam bearing before they cut off the camshaft and no longer needed a bearing there. When they fall out of an '87 the oil pressure becomes so low that the valve lifters clack since they can't pump up.

 

The plugs in my '88 were not in good shape so I replaced them with the pins.

 

Stan,

You mention Loctite PTFE in the second post of this thread, but when I look for it online, I find a variety of PTFE Loctite products with different model numbers and seemingly different applications. They include:

LOCTITE 30534
LOCTITE 37547

Think there is a difference? Which one do you use? Great timing BTW on this...I am putting my replacement water pump back in this week - Thanks!

UPDATE: Found HB at the local Honda automotive parts department. Just curious why you use HB4 and not Hondabond HT in the gasket area?


Thanks
Dave