308 cam cover gasket

I honestly forget what I did w/ mine rgarding the areas by the plug holes, but be sure to give about 1/16" clearance for the cam seals as so the gasket wont cut into the seal.

 

No advantage to removing that gasket material between spark plug openings -- and would just make it (much) harder to keep things in their proper location during placement/tightening. More a "don't do" rather than a "50/50" IMO.

 

I agree with Steve. When I did mine and my friend Paul's covers, I left the whole center section attached as a single piece, including both ends. You will need to trim the ends up a bit to fit with the cam seals. But remember that you will not be putting sealant on the straight parts between the ends and the plug seals, and between the plug seals. I coated mine with Hylomar sealant, and then used a match-head sized dab of RTV sealant at the corners of the cam seals where they meet the gasket. Hope that helps.

 

Well, they are joined when they leave the factory......difficult to hold position otherwise, unless you goop it up, and the factory doesn't do that.

 

Is this what you guys mean?

Which part hear do you trim?
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Steve are you referring to the photo above?

 

To the OP - that gasket is not OEM Ferrari - the one in Mike's picture is.

This is no big deal as long as you don't forget to apply a thin smear of sealant. Hondabond is the goop of choice at the moment

 

Late this afternoon, i called the local honda dealer and they have it for $15. I have heard some recommendations, that it be applied to one side and a light grease on the other side??? Or is the best proceedure to do both sides with honda bond, then do the match head size dab of rtv (?) at the gasket to seal joint.

I am shooting in the 'almost dark" here, so any advice would be welcome (even though I am still a ways out on the cam cover installation, needing to do the valve adjust and the belts/bearings).

Is there any favored cleaner, prior to the application of the HB, lacquer thinner? , a particularly effective voodoo, cam cover cleansing curse you might offer??

Gropeing in the darkness, I remain,
chris

 

I put the HB on both sides - a very thin smear, with decent blobs at all junctions, especially the cam seal housings. I've not had any problems with leakage in the 4000 miles since (touchwood).

 

Thanks David,

I'll give that a try.

chris

 

Trim the side that rests near the cam seals. I used a hole punch on mine and it worked perfectly. I too used RTV on both sides. After three years, the present owner reports no issues to date.

 

I've been told not to use RTV on those gaskets. They tend to slide out under pressure, IIRC. I've used Hylomar as a valve cover gasket dressing on all types of cars for the last 40 years and never have a problem with them leaking, even on my old Jaguars which are notorious for leaking oil. I like it because it doesn't set up, which makes it easy to remove gaskets later and clean up the surfaces the next time around, plus you can reposition the gaskets after you put them in place. With RTV, once it sets up, you're toast if you have to move the gasket, and it's a PITA to clean up or remove if you have to.

Every mechanic has their favorite goop. I've had success with Hylomar, so I keep using it. YMMV, but that's what makes life interesting.

 

Yes, thats what I used and have been happy w/ it's performance over the last 5+ years.

 

I'll 2nd not using either RTV or anaerobic sealant, a little too much & the gasket will slip out of place like a greased pig. You'll find out it slipped when you've got a leak around the cam seal housing o-ring.

I've been using Permatex Hylomar (not Valeo, it sets up too fast for a job this big) with good success for the last several years. One thing with Hylomar is it slowly flows under pressure. This means you need to come back after several hours, or better yet the next day & re-torque the fasteners (eg cam cover nuts) for any joint sealed with Hylomar. Once I figured this out I haven't had any leaks with Hylomar.

However, I've talked to quite a few professional mechanics & they all swear that no sealant is necessary when using the turquoise colored gaskets with the red temp sensitive sealant strips on them. The one exception only used a thin film of sealant for the gasket below the exhaust cams. He felt additional sealant was necessary because oil tends to stand in there while running.

I'm seriously considering not using any sealant this time.

BTW, you did make sure that little oil drain hole in the gap between the 4V cam seal o-ring groove & the cam cap wasn't clogged up didn't you? Better yet, drill it out to about 3/16".

Here's something I posted to Fchat a couple of years ago:

CAM SEAL&COVER TIPS:
In addition to the usual challenge of getting the cam seals on w/o popping the internal springs out, The cam cover-head joint where the seal(seal housing & o-ring in the newer 4-valve {328 & 308 QV) engines) mounts is problematic. It's much worse in the 4-valve engines as the design is very different in that area. The gasket has to be carefully trimmed back so that when oil swells it it doesn't cut the edge of the seal (or the O-ring in the 4-valve engines). Then a matchead sized dab of sealant (RTV) applied to fill the gap.
The biggest problems in this area are are:

- Seal popping out (fix: ding mounting area perimenter w/center punch)

- Gasket slipping away from the problematic joint just enough to let it leak.

I've concluded that using RTV or an anaerobic sealant as a gasket dressing is a major contributor to this problem. The sealants are just too slippery. I'm now recommending Hylomar due to it's tackiness.

What I really want to try is to drill & press fit a steel pin into the head about 1/4" back from the joint & protruding about 1/8", with matching holes in the cam cover and gasket. The pin should put a stop to the gasket slipping away from the joint.

If you search the old Fchat archives, and find my prior posts about sealing the cam cover, you'll probably find them humorous. I was learning as I went & made a lot of mistakes.

 

I recal looking at the end of the drivers side head and seeing a drain hole back into the valve area from the distributor drive and thinking that the hole was at about 8 o clock, or was it 4 'oclock and that it would allow a lot of oil to stand in the end of the head before it would be allowed to drain back into the upper engine. clearly, opening up the hole would be of benefit. My guess is that the factory did not drill a hole from the bottom, down into the cam area was that it could not be done and drain downhill, hence the higher location.

Maybe, i ought to go out and have a better look, but it is late, (for me anyway).

best,
chris