Rip It

Has anyone tried making a gasket for the back cover? Would a material other then cork be better? "CLARK'S" claims the cork gasket is usually good for only 50k miles.
I just purchased all the gaskets and seals, mine just recently started leaking at the rear gasket or possibly at the right back side of the housing just above the #4 header. I pressure washed the area hoping to determine exactly which one is leaking but still can not determine it. The rear cork gasket has 35k miles on it and is a dailey driver. I plan to replace the rear cork gasket first and see what happens. As is after pressure washing within 200 miles the oil gets on the header and when I stop smoke pours out from the hood.
Any suggestions appreciated. see ya

jerome951

I've never had this gasket leak in my car but when I replaced my head and all other cam gaskets I tried something different.

I used Hylomar and coated both cork gasket surfaces before reassembling. Hylomar forms a pliable seal and is oil resistant. There is little pressure in the cam tower so blowout isn't a concern.

I only have 200 miles on the car since the head install so I can't comment on longevity, but I'm hoping it lasts until I have to do any more cam work.

xsboost90

usually the problem is the cork compresses and the bolts come loose and fall out or just allow the cover to leak. Snugging them down every once in awhile will help out a lot.

Chris Prack

Not exactly. The rear cam cover is sealing the main pressure port in the cam housing that feeds the lifters and cam bearing journals. There is alot of pressure there. Next time you have the cam housing off or see one bare, look through the passage and you will see it goes end to end.

The Hylomar should help as will 574. A little blue Locktite on the bolts will help as well since they usually come loose and can fall out once the gasket has shrunk due to heat cycle.

Rip It

Many responses were right on ...rear cam cover bolts were loose. They needed about one full turn to retighten. I pressure washed oily area and within 3 miles had the same leak.
Now I have housing on the work bench, thought I had all the seals , o-rings, etc. and discovered parts I bought are wrong. Looks like I will have to buy the mylar spacer seal from the dealer, it was basically worn away.
I was amazed how good the cam lobes were..absolutley no wear in 157k miles. Thanks for all the responses. Will keep u posted on results, waiting for parts now.

jerome951

Thanks for the education. Guess I should have asked you before I assumed.

I assumed with such a low torque spec on the bolts they couldn't be holding back much pressure.

Glad I didn't screw this up as well... ;-)

hosrom_951

Those three bolts are tricky to torque, something like 6 ft/lbs?

It is easy to over torque them.

Now i don't know why this happened with me, but that rear cap just broke and leaked oil like made on the x-over pipe

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Rob

I decided to go without the cork gasket on the last cam tower I put together. I used yamabond and simply bolted the cover right to the cam box to eliminate the problems with the cork gasket. No problems so far.

adrian1

Just had this same problem yesterday, found the bottom was missing and the others were loose. Stop leaking and smoking. As for my headgasket, thats another story.

Rip It

I finished replacing ALL of the cam housing gaskets,mylar spacer, and front cover o-ring and seals. Lots of oil ran down onto my headers when I pulled the cam housing off, soaked the header gaskets pretty good. I immediately drove to a car wash and pressure washed the engine in that area. I got lots of attention at the stop lights...smoke pouring out from under the hood. Everything seems back to normal now. By the way I used a Tack Sealant on the bottom side of the cam housing gasket and the back cover side of the cork gasket and loc-tited those 3 bolts.