[Billydv]

Nice day in NY here, finally wanted to change valve cover gaskets. I have the printout for instructions but they tell you to do stuff that clearly isn't necessary. Nevertheless I was surprised to see inner camshaft has some pitting

 

[FormulaDynamics]

Certainly not ideal... surfaces are hardened and once their pitted, it's pretty much gone. There are places that can regrind, profile the cam and reharden but at a certain point a new cam is the way to go. With that said, we've seen them last quite a while after the pitting starts. It gets worse of course the longer you run it.

Best Regards,

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

Dang, that thing sat with a lot of moisture in the crankcase...J

 

[Billydv]

That's my thoughts Jason. What a pain in the a** getting those 1/2 moons in place lol.
The engine was running perfect so I'm inclined to leave that camshaft alone for now

 

[timado404]

That's my thoughts Jason. What a pain in the a** getting those 1/2 moons in place lol.
The engine was running perfect so I'm inclined to leave that camshaft alone for now

What's the mileage?

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

1.) you have the old style variator, but that isn't a biggie...2.) I think you are gonna have to rock that...I wouldn't start getting a wire brush etc. and trying to do something with that..All that shit will end up in the oil....Honestly, I think all of that will be fine because the materials used in the engine are such high quality...Just not pretty...I would clean so when you look into the oil cap you don't see that.. Lastly, I would see if Lucas etc..makes something to try to do something with that..Maybe have it go away slowly? J

 

[ienzi]

I just did the valve cover gaskets and spark plugs on mine. 175Km

What are best measures to prevent rust from forming on cams?

 

[Billydv]

I don't think my situation is normal, I think my car may have sat in a humid or wet place for some time in the past

 

[Billydv]

So, I got pass side off, couldn't get dipstick out, figured it might break so I just pushed it out of the way

 

[Billydv]

High tack for gluing the gasket to the cover, I actually used a dremel with a wire brush to clean the grooves

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

I think if you looked at the carfax for that car it must have sat a long ass time with a lot of moisture in the crankcase or someone really just doing a lot of short trips not allowing the moisture to boil off...Jason

 

[Billydv]

If I end up doing variators on the car one day, then I'll deal with the cam but honestly I don't get any rattles and engine runs fine so I don't think it's a big deal

 

[Billydv]

I think the 2 biggest pains with these valve cover gaskets is first having to redo ac, second is removing or loosening the dipstick. The 2 bolts for the dipstick are in very awkward spots

 

[Billydv]

Finally finished up today, got thrown off last night. I had all my ac service equipment in the basement and I guess when we got flooded a couple of years ago, I never thought about it and it was all destroyed. Ran to Harbor Freight, new vacuum pump, gauges and a leak dete tor, $300, OH well.
Valve cover gaskets now perfect, no more smoke when you start up. Wiper motor - replaced the blades since I had it apart but the passenger side stud was a little stripped. @[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta
Have you ever fixed the stud? I'm wondering if I don't thread it down and use a different size nut

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

I have never had an issue with that honestly..I guess run a die over it and hope for the best..J

 

[TWINTRBO]

Wait, you HAVE to undo the AC lines to do the VC gaskets? First I ever heard that.

 

[Billydv]

So on the driver's side, the ac line block at the firewall leaves very little space to drop in valve cover. It may have wiggled out but I felt it best not to damage anything and replace all those ac orings at the same time

 

[TWINTRBO]

Ok, got it. I hadn't heard that before and I'm going to be doing that job soon so it got me worried. I won't be touching that unless I absolutely have to!

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

You can do it either way, but having the A/C line out of the way helps a lot..J