Cam tower removal questions
 

There's little oil droplets of oil all over the top of my engine, and I can't think of any place they could be coming from except for the cam tower gasket. How difficult is it to remove the cam cover, and does the timing belt need to come off to do it?

It is not difficult at all
And yes the timing belt has to come off

I used the write up at Clark`s garage..

Same here, Clark is your friend. Not really difficult but it is a pain and time-consuming. Follow the instructions to the letter with the engine at TDC and make sure you mark the timing belt and gear before pulling the belt off, so you can match it later. I used a little white paint.

BTW check the rear cam seal too, would be an easier fix. I verified my cam tower gasket by getting the car on ramps and looking up from underneath. I saw a nice oil drip coming from the RR corner of the cam tower. Was not happy at that point.

Just make sure that when you pull the tower, that you get a reseal kit and seal the entire tower. There is a wiper seal (and i recently found out the hard way that different years used a different size, 30 vs. 32, so make sure you get the correct one), o ring, rubber spacer thingy, and a thin clear plastic spacer on the front, and then the hippo gasket at the rear.

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to put this off as long as I can, probably do it over the summer. I'v always been scared to touch the belt because I 'm afraid to screw it up, so I've been paying mechanics to do the belt chages and retensioning. I guess I've got to learn to do it eventually. :p

As far as belts go, I just did mine for the first time and was pleasantly suprised by how easy it is. It's time consuming to get all of the stuff off but it's easy to get the timing right. Make sure you have a flywheel lock, though. My grandfather is a genius and fabricated one for me but you can get them for $50 from a catalog.

Good luck getting the gasket off if it's the original. :thumbup:

Haha, just what I wanted to hear :p

I have had a slight leak in the cam housing gasket and it drips on the #1 header and makes a little smoke . If you can look under the first header it might be the cam housing and the the tower ??
I have been to intimidated to touch it and now I am getting ready to the install my new turbo :jumper:
I think, if I do it, I will go the lazy way out and just do the housing seal.
regards
Ed

No prob, just trying to prepare ya. ;)
Be ready to spend most of the day carefully scraping it off.
Not a fun job...

Make sure that the camshaft bolts are CLEAN and free of debris, otherwise you can (and will) easily chew the heads off in no time.

Just take you're time

Custom Cam tower bolt removal tool –

Take a cheap right angle 6mm Allen key and cut it so you are left with a straight piece, then use a standard 6mm socket to drive the straight Allen key. Works like a charm.

Chris White

That's just what I do. Works great. I eventually "upgraded" to a cut off Craftsman alan key, because the super-cheap one I used to have was starting to round off.

I did something you guys will consider sacriledge. I took the factory tool (the one in the tool kit) and cut it off to apprx. 6" long, pulled the 6mm end out of my metric hex key set, and then drove in my new modified one. Now I have the perfect length tool that allows me to use the socket on all the bolts easily. I didn't mind doing it because the rubber stopper had swelled over the years and didn't fit in the holes any more.