I'll be replacing my cam housing gasket tommorrow. 2nd time this year. Has anyone found any tips on replacing it? It's leaking from the same spot...by the firewall and dripping onto exhaust. Last time I had the graphite coated gasket and installed 100% dry as Porsche says. Has anybody used any gasket sealant or something else which worked?

 

Everyone told me put it on dry too.I broke a few gaskets early on then just took my time it seems fine now.My only suggestion is take you time.

 

I had about 4 failures in one year. Finally, Jim at Eurowerks suggested I use one of his custom cut gaskets. It is not graphite and slippery like the Porsche part. It is thicker, however. He told me to be meticulatous about keeping the surfaces totally dry. I followed his advice, and have driven about one year now with no leaks. Good luck.

 

I trust you have replaced the rear cam cover gasket. Those will leak right where you mentioned. I guess I've been lucky. I've always just tossed the stock gasket on there, dry, and have not had any leaks. (Knock on wood.)

 

The thing I hate with the cam cover is the $#@^&* lifting eye. Yes you can tilt the engine to the drivers side a bit but...the lifting eye hits the battery cables there and a lot of people who nick the gasket without knowing it. I suggest that you remove the lifting eye, put it on clean and dry. Good luck.

 

Although some suggest not to, I used the loctite sealant reccommended for the oil pan gasket on the cam gaskets. For over a year now it's the most leak-free part of my engine. YMMV

 

Replacing any gasket should be done dry right?

 

Do it dry... I've tried Yamabond .. it leaks when using sealants.

 

well, I put it on today...will have to wait to see if it leaks...did everybody use the 14 ft/lbs or has anyone tried different torque specs?

 

Tom, I bought the rear cam cover gasket last time, but it was bone dry...as well as this time, I'm not gonna mess with it since it seems ok. If it leaks this time, I'll have to try Dave's idea and use the Eurowerks gasket. Thanks guys.

 

Mike i had the same problem as you did and leaked from the same spot as yours. All i did was take off the tower. Get all new gaskets for the tower including the following: rear cork seal(where lift hook is), make sure those 3 bolts are tight when you go put it back on; New seals in the front( camshaft oilseal, and i belive there are 1or2 more seals in the front). To do the all the seals in the front you have to take off the cam gear and be sure not to loose the spline that lines up the cam gear. Once those are all replaced get a new tower gasket(head to tower) and go to napa and get some stuff called High Tack apply that to the clean, dry head, adn as well as the clean dry tower. Put on one nice thin coat, let that dry, then put on a second even coat on. I even went as far as putting it on the gasket. Once that is all dry place the gasket on the head and then put the tower on and finish bolting it back togeather. Since i did that there is isn't one leak. Hope i gave you some help

 

Also. for the bolts on the outside of the tower, get some thread sealant from napa as well. I torqed mine to 16lbs. And still no prob. Good LUCK

 

I used Permatex high-tack 2 weeks ago, on both sides of gasket and both metal surfaces, so far so good. I also put some high-tack in the sockets on the 6 allen screws that go inside the housing plus a bit on the tip of the allen wrench, to hold them together during installation so the screws don't drop into the cam housing. I use a cut-off 6mm allen wrench (straight, no ball) and a 6mm 3/8-drive socket on the allen wrench to tighten.