Mongo

I ordered some EFI hose and clamps from Roger to rebuild that line on the passenger side stretching across the valve cover. When removing this line, the hose was damaged. Really weird since it looked really good on the outside, however that is only some sort of protective sheething over the hose.

Just out of curiousity, do I need to wrap the EFI hose replacement in something after clamping it down to protect it like the factory did?

Mongo

The wife surprised me again since I had to work yesterday afternoon. I came home to some nice lettering on the intake.

Leon Speed

No, just make sure it doesn't rub on anything. You might want to wrap the one between the fuel rails in the front,it tends to rub on the oil filler neck.

Mongo

Thanks for letting me know about the middle one. I completely forgot about putting something protective over it to prevent the rubbing.


I need some help from some Rennlisters here on this one. My CD containing the WSM does not have the supplement for the cam cover installation and which bolt lengths go where. Does anyone have a reference photo of the cam cover bolt orientation?

Bill Ball

There are only 4 short ones per side. They go in the corners. If they do not reach the threads, you have them in the wrong depth hole.

Mongo

There are some with washers I noticed. I didn't mark where they went

dr bob

Washers originally go in the bottom bolts on each side. There are recommendations that they be used on all the bolts, to add a little extra pressure on the cover gasket.

Mongo

Dr. Bob funny that you mentioned that as it crossed my mind to reuse some of my old washers for the top for the added pressure. I might as well do all of them since the extra pressure to ensure a tight seal couldn't hurt.

Mongo

I ended up installing the seals on the breathers today but ran out of time during my lunch hour picking the old seals out of the black plugs on the driver side. They were buried under some gnarly looking Permatex black. The o-rings on the elbow chipped off fairly easy. New ones are on and I did a test fit on my newly painted valve covers. They manage to insert without lubricant, but didn't seat fully. I will have to pick up some assembly lube on the way home from NAPA today.

dr bob

Just use some of that Hylomar/Hondabond.

Mongo

Sounds good to me. There's some more crap I need to scrape off on the cover's gasket surfaces. Since I cannot use brake cleaner after the paint job, I'm thinking of using some 409 and a steel brush. I had luck with this method in the past as a degreaser. Most of the silicone was alreay taken off. This is more or less an OCD move on my part.

Once everything is clean, the Hondabond goes on the valve cover gasket surface and around the spark plug seals. I will be using Zip ties to keep the gasket on and will be letting it set overnight. Would there be anything bad about that?

Mongo

Almost a week since I have updated this thread...

I have taken next Tuesday off to put the car back together. Valve covers are going on tomorrow and Friday (one side per day due to time constraints). Since the cam gears were removed on both sides, it looks like I will need a 32v'r tool to re-align and re-time them. I looked at the factory training video uploaded to youtube, apparently when re-assembling these, the woodruff key will need to be aligned in the center of the cam gear's notch for a baseline alignment. I guess from there, the 32v'r can be installed in order to time the gears.

Mongo

I didn't have time to do the covers last night but will tackle them both today. I need some tips on installing them back on. My biggest concern is the passenger side since the air pump bracket may scratch my new paint job. So, I will be taping off the engine brackets to keep them from scratching the covers.

I have Permatex grey for the gasket surface on the valve cover and will using it on both sides of the spark plug seals before installing. When it comes to the cover bolts, I will not be applying sealant on them. I have opted to reuse some of the old washers for extra clamping force but only have 12 per side (6 new for the bottom of each side). Should I also place the extra washers on the middle three bolts for extra compression on the spark plug seals?

Bill Ball

I have always unbolted the air pump diverter valve bracket, if that is what you are concerned with. In fact, I had to do that just to get to one of the cover bolts.

Mongo

The bolts are frozen on the pump bracket, I managed to loosen the rear bolt on the diverter bracket, but stripped the front one when attempting again after it spent the night soaking in PB blaster. I actually got lucky when it came to removing that bolt you were talking about while everything was still in place.