I'm a couple of hundred miles short of retorquing the heads in an ea82 (1000 mile target) in which I'll almost certainly remove the cam cases. Yes, I did grind a socket that will allow me to torque the heads with the towers in place, but the lifter noise is really getting to me. I cleaned all four on the drivers' side, split the retaining ring on two of them (don't ask) and am now running two cleaned and two new on that side. Sounds just like a Volkswagen. Not exactly what I had in mind. Also, my oil pressure has been acting oddly. At cold start, it jumps above the '45' mark and stays there until the coolant guage comes up. Then it drops to almost an eighth inch under the '45'. At idle, it damn near bounces off the horizontal.

Anyway, at minimum, I'll have to look at the O-ring passages, if only for piece of mind.

 

My question (at long last) is this: has anyone tried _not_ removing sealant from the cam case grooves? I mean, can I re-use the existing cam case sealant just like a good valve cover gasket?

 

It's just that working that stupid groove with wooden q-tips and toothpicks gets a little time-consuming.

 

Anyone?

 

Thanks

Kalo

From what I've gathered the cam cases are prone to leak. Mine did and so did my buddys ea-82. I don't think trying a shortcut on an area that's prone to leak would be a good idea. Just my thought on subject. Shouldn't matter tho, since you can torque with them in place. I think your lifter noise might be tied more to your oil pressure than dirty lifters. Resealing the oil pump might quiet things down some. Good luck.

use the ultra grey anaerobic sealant

retorquing the heads? I thought that was only necessary on the older motors. I read that if you do the inital steps corectly then you are done. I would be concerned about head gasket problems if I torqued them again. I have seen other types of cars head gaskets fail due to improer/over torquing.

 

as for the oil pressure put a real gauge on the pump and recheck it. dont trust the cars gauge. and yeah it may need a reseal.

 

yeah the cam covers suck but its alot easyer the second time. I have been there.

 

nor cal where?Kalo

you might add some extra grounds from engine to chassis; the stock gauges can do weird things as the stock grounding gets old and less effective.

If you try to retorque heads on an EA82 engine that has any kind of age on it and has ever run hot, you run a good change of pulling the threads in the case for the head bolts.

Look to the oil pump reseal for curing ticking lifters and leave the head bolts alone.

As for the pressures you're describing, those are actually about right. 45lbs at cold start up, 7.5-15 at idle.

 

And if you do decide to go ahead with this, no, you don't have to clean out the cam tower case grooves, but you do have to clean the flat surface and reseal them, preferably with Permatex Ultra Gray 599 sealant.

 

Emily

http://www.ccrengines.com

What's the difference between Ultra Grey and regular red Anaerobic sealant?