cruise98

I will second caster944. Try the easy and cheap cork gasket first. Removing the cam tower requires messing around with the cam belt.

The shop that said it is the head gasket should be avoided in the future. Either they are incompetent, lazy or dishonest any of which are bad news for your wallet and the 951. The head gasket is a long way from the source of your oil leak.

ryanm6100

Is the rear cam gasket also known as the "water hose flange gasket"??????

cruise98

No.

Part #928.105.189.02 is what you are looking for.

ryanm6100

Thanks!!!!!

ryanm6100

Is that on Pelican?

Tom M'Guinn

I second that...

ryanm6100

Agreed. I knew it wasn't the head gasket. It was a dealer that told me that - I'm sure I was one of the few (if any) 951's they've ever seen. My guess is that they just looked, saw oil, picked the most expensive gasket they could find, and diagnosed accordingly.

ryanm6100

Oh and I found that cork POS gasket on germanparts.com for like $1.92, plus $6 for shipping...

JonH

Hey Ryan, I'm doing the cork gasket also for my '87, found the part for $1.16 at the local dealer, no shipping. FYI

smac951

You should be able to resize using illustrator or iphoto.

Darwantae951

I buy most of my parts from GPR (GPRParts.com). Thats where I got the rear seal for my car. It was fairly inexpensive.

ryanm6100

So this afternoon I replaced the rear cam gasket "cam cap"... So far, I think my problem might be solved, but I'll give it a couple days of driving to be sure...

While I was in there, I noticed something odd...On the cam cap, there are 4 bolt holes, but only 3 bolts actually attach the cap to the cam housing. This means this gasket is even more prone to failure than it is being cork alone! I guessed about 2-4mm of actual gasket separate the oil from this empty hole, which is not much IMO.

Has anyone else noticed this rediculous engineering? Any solutions?

I will post some pics of the old gasket when I get a chance!

caster951

Yes, you are correct in the retardedness? of the design of the cap mounting. Just make sure not to overtorque the bolts or the gasket will be pushed out and leak very soon again. You can use some loctite blue on the bolts for safety.

ryanm6100

I eventually will put some loctite on there, but in a couple weeks I'm taking most of the engine apart anyways to replace the waterpump and thermostat(s)...Maybe I'll clean everything up and perhaps throw some loctite on all the bolts..

ryanm6100

So after a few start-ups I am still noticing some smoke when the car is first getting up to running temperature. Not a big surprise, but I'm still not very happy.

I am doing the waterpump in the near future (prob. 2 weeks), and I guess I have no choice but to replace the cam housing gasket as well, to be on the safe side. I also plan on replacing the belts, and perhaps a front engine re-seal is in order as well.

I don't want to spend a lot while I'm in there, but if everything is going to be off anyways, I have to at least consider my options. This will be (hopefully) a 2-day weekend job, so what should I look into doing while I'm in there?