JohnKoaWood

DOH, just looked, it is 20Nm (14ft lbs)... when I pulled my cam tower off, I took them out with a T-handled 6mm allen driver... the guys standing there were surprised I could break them loose with the driver...



AND I can confirm, gaskets dry... I have 300 miles on mine, and no signs of leaking... other than a SMALL coolant leak at the head gasket, which has sealed itself off... no signs of leaking since first run after putting it all back together! AND make sure you put the cam tower gasket on correctly.... I have seen pictures of it installed with TOP showing when the gasket is installed on the tower... FSM shows top when it is on the head TOP means the TOP when everything is put together! (old one I removed was upside down)

I missed this car...

slap929

The question that I am referring to is the bearings. Sorry, I dont think I made that clear. I am good on the process of the cam tower and the torque specs. So should I worry about a spun #2? gator thanks for the tip I will do just that. John and the others, thanks for the torque spec and the other details.

JohnKoaWood

Have you had water mix with oil? If so do the bearings...

Have you experienced oil pressure problems? If so do the bearings..

Do you plan to track the car? If so do the bearings....

FWIW, I have not spun a #2, nor have I changed my rod bearings... almost 60K miles in 3 years on 2 944s... no issues with #2, but I keep my oil changed regularly, and dont go to the track...

HOWEVER, my 951 engine is apart for rebuild, and my NA engine is JUST under 100K miles now... I am sure I am going to spin a rod bearing tomorrow just because I said it!

Gator_86_951

As to your #2 question, if you keep the oil full you will be fine. The #2 bearing failure as a general matter happens under heavy heavy track use. I beat the **** out of mine and it never failed. But, when I took it apart, #2 was clearly more worn than the others. So, in short, I wouldn't stress out about something you can't control.

Gator_86_951

Also, get some assembly grease and freeze it. Put that on the lifters and it will keep them in place when you assemble the cam tower. Best idea evars

Chris White

After a couple of heat cycles the final torque becomes +/- 5% of the allen head stripping strength…

slap929

Still in the process of the cam tower gasket change. The old one is fried on there. Considered taking a screw driver and/or some sand paper to it but would like to ask if its ok first. Anyone else have any solutions to a cam tower gasket that wont get off?

JohnKoaWood

I used permatex foaming gasket remover and a scuffing pad (3M green scratch pad).. just takes elbow grease but all the old gasket will come off!

carlege

advise against a screw driver. If anything get a flat plastic something. Anything that wont damage the surface.

JohnKoaWood

Carful use of a razor blade is fine, any scratches can be blended, and eventually (worst case) you could have a machine shop surface cut the entire tower flat!

I used the razor, the scuffing pad, and foaming gasket remover... resulted in the picture I posted earlier in the thread! Razor was just to save some time, it isn't required, it just helps cut a large portion of th egasket out of the way..

used the same on my block to head gasket interface.. head was processed by the machine shop..



I was pretty impressed with how clean I got the mating surfaces! And both my head gasket and cam tower gaskets are holding well 500 miles down so far!

slap929

Ok cool. I appreciate the advice once more. John if you would be willing to send me those pictures I would greatly appreciate it. Figure I could make a decent write up with pictures.

JohnKoaWood

Which pictures, and where you want em to go? PM me your email and I can shoot em to you!

F18Rep

Its been a while since I did this little job but if I remember right those gaskets appear to be treated with some kind of slick coating. One of the 928 guys (similar setup) said something about that being needed for the cam tower to settle into position. Am I mis-remembering?...Bruce