... and so it begins.... cam cover leaking through bolt
Discussion
Hi Chaps,
Picked up the cerb the other day and have been enjoying my tentatively getting to know her. Put my 2nd tank of fuel in today and a chap in a Audi R8 beside me cracked a large smile as I fired her up to leave, the old gal' still got it!
Anyway. Hopefully this is a very minor problem to kick of with, but I thought I'd seek some advice before maybe doing the wrong thing....
Here is a pic of my passenger side cam cover. When I opened the bonnet to show my mate the engine idling, I could see some oil bubbling out of that hole around the bolt that was in it. (The hole is the one middle left in image.) The picture was taken on my return home after cleaning the area up and removing the bolt. It is not possible to tighten the bolt up (I assume stripped thread in head?).
I'm assuming this is not a big problem and that a small amount of positive pressure under the cam cover is blowing a smidge out through this hole due to bad internal gasket sealing.
It seems that the cam cover itself is not leaking, just this bolt. I'm guessing a 'proper' fix would be to take the cam cover off and helicoil that thread in the head, but as the cover appears to be well sealed anyway, the bolt is somewhat redundant for now..... I'm thinking to just put some sealant on the head of the bolt to make it airtight on the cover to stop the leak - is this a bad/stupid plan? When tappets are next adjusted I'll request helicoils to be fitted to do job properly then.
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this seems like a big post on a small leak, I just want to do the right thing by her!
Cheers,
Stu
Picked up the cerb the other day and have been enjoying my tentatively getting to know her. Put my 2nd tank of fuel in today and a chap in a Audi R8 beside me cracked a large smile as I fired her up to leave, the old gal' still got it!
Anyway. Hopefully this is a very minor problem to kick of with, but I thought I'd seek some advice before maybe doing the wrong thing....
Here is a pic of my passenger side cam cover. When I opened the bonnet to show my mate the engine idling, I could see some oil bubbling out of that hole around the bolt that was in it. (The hole is the one middle left in image.) The picture was taken on my return home after cleaning the area up and removing the bolt. It is not possible to tighten the bolt up (I assume stripped thread in head?).
I'm assuming this is not a big problem and that a small amount of positive pressure under the cam cover is blowing a smidge out through this hole due to bad internal gasket sealing.
It seems that the cam cover itself is not leaking, just this bolt. I'm guessing a 'proper' fix would be to take the cam cover off and helicoil that thread in the head, but as the cover appears to be well sealed anyway, the bolt is somewhat redundant for now..... I'm thinking to just put some sealant on the head of the bolt to make it airtight on the cover to stop the leak - is this a bad/stupid plan? When tappets are next adjusted I'll request helicoils to be fitted to do job properly then.
Thanks in advance, and sorry if this seems like a big post on a small leak, I just want to do the right thing by her!
Cheers,
Stu
Edited by stuthemong on Sunday 12th July 20:35
squirt a bit of sealant down the hole and insert the bolt. do it up as much as you can or press it into the hole.
this will force the sealant up and out of the bolt hole and into any cracks etc. most of it will squirt back out of the hole as the bolt fills the void, but this will fix your problem. you cnnot do any harm by doing this.
this will force the sealant up and out of the bolt hole and into any cracks etc. most of it will squirt back out of the hole as the bolt fills the void, but this will fix your problem. you cnnot do any harm by doing this.
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