95cab

I took on this DIY this morning and it looks like a success (phew). I used the car's jack and put both left side jack points (or nearby area) on blocks - not fancy, but appeared effective. Was actually surprised that the front tire came off the ground when I lifted the rear - so much different than my Suburban...

This follows the pcar workshop DIY on this topic. The removal of the rubber exhaust fitting isn't in there and it's a definite must in my novice opinion.

Tire removal went fine - once I remembered the on bolt has the special fitting.

Thanks to another post, I was aware of the benefits of tapping the bolts with a centerpunch & hammer to help loosen them. Just tapped them five or ten times prior to trying to loosen. This was really key - and I wore thick leather/work gloves when loosening to avoid what would have been a bloody, bruised mess. 5mm allen wrench was the only tool I used to unscrew the bolts. No dremeling, bolt extractors, ratchets or other devices - see below.

First picture is after removal of the wheel, and I removed the rubber hose between the heat exchanger and the heat tube.


Second picture is rag over the hole that I took the hose off so no bolts or wrenches fell in there.


Third picture is cover off. Shows the small amount of oil that came out. I had just started the car after the winter for the first time yesterday and run it up to temperature, so didn't encounter the large oil discharge that some others have experienced.


As mentioned in other posts, the two hardest bolts are the ones in the back. After removing the rubber tube (which was remarkably pliable and easy to remove and reinstall), access was actually not that bad - see pictures above. Below is picture with new cover on. I tried to get bolts to fairly hand tight, then add one quarter turn. Don't have any torque tools, so hoping this works - will be watching closely the next couple weeks. Worked bolts from center towards end as mentioned by others, and ended up re-tightening all of them as also mentioned in other posts. Always retightened to hand-snug plus one quarter turn. Keeping fingers crossed.

Here is the installed cover. Reinstallation was fairly straightforward, with the placement of the cover & gasket in order to hand-tighten the first couple of bolts the only minor trick from a coordination/contortion perspective...


I ran the engine like this (above) - oops. Forgot one spark plug wire - hope that's not an issue. Obviously stopped car and installed wire before continuing with short run to see if it belched oil - it didn't. Below is the installed cover, with plug wires all reinstalled as well as the hose in the exhaust system.


Here is the tool selection I used. The rubber mallet was to help get the told cover off, but it wasn't necessary. Screwedriver was just to remove the hose clamps on the exhaust system. The large L-shaped tool from the Porsche tool set was helpful in prying the hose off the exhaust components. The pizza box worked great as an oil catch/tool placement spot.


Hopefully this all works out. Thanks for everyone's prior advice - it was all super helpful to confidently approach this DIY. One note - the Hargett group buy gasket kit came with 10 bolts in one package and 12 in the other - just an FYI, since I happened to use the one with 10 and didn't think to see if the other had the extras.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the other cover/gasket since it was only the left side that was leaking...

Will report back if the seive opens again...

boulderbobo

Nice work!

No damage done. If oil belches from the plug cavity it would not be a good thing....

Bob-

FD Motorsports

Hmmm...there should have been eleven for each side. I'll have to check with quality control....OH MARK......?

EDIT: There should be 22 total...one pkg of 10 and one package of 12. Did you open the other package?

Yes, the spark plug hole are isolated by the gasket, so there should be no oil in there.


Darin

95cab

My bad - modified the original post - thanks.

FD Motorsports

No worries.
Nice work! I'm putting both covers on my car (neither side is leaking.) I just think they are really nice pieces, and cant just leave them sitting in the shop. I've got to be quick, or next thing you know they'll be on Mark's cab

Darin

Stealth 993

Get some nice metric hex sockets, you will LOVE them! Hex keys have no place on a Porsche!

MarkD

ohh nooo...






Nice work Brian

EckFe1

Nice job, what I find disturbing a bit is that the Hargetts or any other aftermarket aluminum valve covers don't have the clips to guide the spark plug wires.
I like the covers and would propably by some when the orig. ones are leaking but I don't understand why they put so much effort into building a nice cover and leave out some of the important stuff.
Now the wires are vibrating, dangling and hitting the plugs and wear prematurely. You fix one thing but create another one right next to it.
I feel this needs to be addressed too.
Ed

craig001

I think the Eagle Day set I have floating around my garage has mounting points for the plug wire retainers.

MarkD

Don't be disturbed...

The plug wire length below the engine tin is short and tidy and easily routed without too much thought.
The plug boots on these cars fit very tight and do not vibrate loose or even have a chance to "dangle". They fit tight on the spark plug and seal at the valve cover.

I totally understand your concerns but I can tell you from thousands of miles of experience that the scenario you described is not a real one. The simply do not budge.
Ciao!

IXLR8

I just replaced all of the rubber seals under all four valve covers and I can tell you with 100% certainty that they leak because the rubber seals harden not because the OEM valve covers warp which is what the story is.

In fact, when your valve covers are torqued down (84 in.lbs.), the cover doesn't even make contact with the camshaft housing; there is an even 1 to 2 mm gap all around because the rubber seal cannot be compressed further.

BTW, the point at which my lower valve covers leaked, the rubber dough-nuts that surround the bushings were so hard, I could hardly compress them with my fingers. The new ones were compressible till the rubber sides touched. I believe the lower seals harden because they are next to the mufflers and subject to more heat.

IXLR8

"Nice" is a matter of opinion. Frankly, I think those end mill machining marks look like crap.

As for them not having the spark plug attach points, its a matter of cost. Having those same spark plug wire attach points found on the OEM covers would mean having to start with a thicker chunk of aluminium.

FisterD

"Nice" is definitely a matter of opinion, and I think the Hargett valve covers look great....to each his own.
To state the reason Hargett designed them without plug wire holders due to cost is a bit presumptious.

chris walrod

One aspect I designed-into my version of the ally valve cover was wire mounting provisions -- just a tapped hole here and there with a view to use the bolt-on 964 clips. Easy enough to do. Also to have a bore depth at each plug location to grip each wire, at the plug angle, like the originals.

I do feel all of HP's stuff is great and think they are nice products!

Tool marks are avoidable but not on pieces of this cost. One could tumble debur these as well but again, not at the cost these were offered at. I stopped my v/c project years ago simply due to material cost alone. I worked hard to get the v/c height under 1" such that I could utilize a more available material blank in 6061 T-6. I still thought it was a long shot to be competitive

IXLR8

Have you priced aluminium?

To have those spark plug cable holders machined into them would need another 3/8" of thickness. Now you're also talking more machining time and tool wear.

One can always used a metal cable clamp that is rubber lined and attach it to one of the valve cover bolts.