Stuck Cam Cover

[vincereynard]

In an attempt to cure the oil leaks I decided to give silicone a try.

I cleaned up the camcover surface with oily 600 wet & dry and then cleaned the whole thing in spirit wipe.
Squeaky clean. I cleaned up the head mating surface then applied a bead of lubricant to hopefully
stop silicone sticking to the head. It did not work. The camcover is now stuck solid!

Any ideas of how to free it? Also how can the nuts be accurately torqued up if they are nyloc?

Vince

[john.p.clegg]

Vince
A sharp knife,razor blade or scalpel should do the trick , mind your fingers , and next time give the head mating surface a smear of engine oil...

John

[promotor]

Use a very slightly wedge shaped implement (nice screwdriver) very carefully between cam cover and gasket so as to avoid damage to the heads' top face. Just been through this this week with a cam cover/head I really didn't want to damage!

You should still be able to get some kind of torque even with Nylocs - it's only the same as getting a torque figure when tightening sump bolts - it always feels like the torque wrench isn't going to click but it does if done carefully with a torque wrench fit for the job. I've got one that measures in lbf inches which does the job for cam covers and sumps nicely.

I'd check to see if your cam cover face is nice and flat and if not clean it up using a surface / flat plate and appropriate abrasive paper.

[Spyder fan]

a pack of these for your Stanley knife will help http://www.screwfix.com/p/hooked-knife- ... f-10/18278

[vincereynard]

The problem is that there is no noticeable gap between head and camcover! I may have been a little over enthusiastic with initial tightening before the silicone set.

I'll try it tomorrow and, if it does not leak (much), I'll leave it for now! My only concern is a possibility small bits of silicone may break off inside the camcover. Paranoia!

[promotor]

Did you not use the cork gasket? If not then maybe the cam cover is sitting lower and is now wedged onto the studs where they get fatter?

[webbslinger]

I second the thin sharp blade advice. A mini box cutter or even a razor blade. Don't start prying until you've gotten all the way around and then do it very judicially. Even very tight you'll find starting points. I don't like silicone and have been using The Right Stuff, by Permetex. It's a knarly job getting it off like you're facing, but it hasn't leaked for me, or come loose in bits inside. Just go slow and carefully and accept that it's going to take awhile.

[billwill]

In an attempt to cure the oil leaks I decided to give silicone a try.

I cleaned up the camcover surface with oily 600 wet & dry and then cleaned the whole thing in spirit wipe.
Squeaky clean. I cleaned up the head mating surface then applied a bead of lubricant to hopefully
stop silicone sticking to the head. It did not work. The camcover is now stuck solid!

Any ideas of how to free it? Also how can the nuts be accurately torqued up if they are nyloc?

Vince

Methinx you should have let the silicone bead on the cover set before you put the cover on the head; the aim is to create a soft gasket out of silicone which then presses tight on the head surface, not sticks to it.

The torque on the cover nuts is not critical enough to need a torque wrench; remember it is normally just tight enough to partly compress a cork gasket. You can do it by eye instead of a torque wrench. The torque figure would depend on the material of the gasket in any case.

[Grizzly]

Erm not good, if you have fitted it without a gasket and before the sealer has dried you'll be in for hours of fun (i know some one that did exactly the same thing on an Alfa) i believe my brother got his off by putting a hook through the filler cap and raised it gently with the engine crane then left it overnight, came in next morning and it had let it go....... not suggesting you do that but he had battled with it for months by that point and it was a fix or destroy moment..

As for the Nyloc nuts, you need a set of Seloc Sealing Washers under them then i tend to tighten quite tight but holding the ratchet close to pivot so i don't use much of the handle (if that makes sense) and most importantly make sure their all tightened evenly (I have the Seloc-Washer-Nylock because the seloc gets chewed up by the nut if you don't have a washer)

[vincereynard]

In my defense I did coat the head surface with teflon spray on the assumption the silicone would not stick. Apparently no! I also left it about 5 mins to flash off. Major mistake was to let it squeeze out too much.
Ultimate plan is to make up some hooks to fit through the D things and lift it straight up with a small winch attached to the ceiling! Drastic but it has to be lifted square.

[el-saturn]

those rubber coated washers are only in theory a good idea: the rubber starts to crumble without much pressure on them: copper is soooooo much better folks!! -------- ps cometic rocker cover gasket thickness: as read somewhere on this forum: they're not thick enough. i'm starting to agree; wherefore i'm gonna ADD another one and see whether it's finally OILTIGHT! sandy ------------- trying to fit my hardtop tomorraaa. 36 / 4982: as a "proper" DHC tomorrow afternoon

[Grizzly]

those rubber coated washers are only in theory a good idea: the rubber starts to crumble without much pressure on them

Thats why you put a washer on top so the nut doesn't tear them up (they have a serrated spring washer inside so it's going to cut up the rubber), they are supposed to be replaced every time the cover comes off, used correctly they work very well.

I've destroyed this one to show you the spring washer inside.

Every one to their own but the seloc washers work great if used as intended.

[Grizzly]

Ultimate plan is to make up some hooks to fit through the D things and lift it straight up with a small winch attached to the ceiling! Drastic but it has to be lifted square.

I know they have to come off square but my brother raised his just off level, the idea being if he started a corner it would localise the weight rather than spreading the load evenly across the whole cover. I wasn't there when he finally got it off but i believe he could lift the front wheels off the floor with just the sealer holding (Permatex Ultra Grey is serious stuff)

[Chancer]

Remove all the studs first and it should make removal a lot easier, you can then try knocking it sideways and back & forth with a rubber deadblow hammer.

[Orsom Weels]

Remove all the studs first and it should make removal a lot easier, you can then try knocking it sideways and back & forth with a rubber deadblow hammer.

You can't remove the studs as they are stepped from 5/16" on the lower section that secures the cam caps with a nylock nut to 1/4" where they come through the cam cover. Whether you could wind them out & kind of 'jack' the cover off I don't know, but I don't think it's a method I would like to try. I have some nylon/plastic wedges that I use for such occasions, (they were given to me by a windscreen fitter, he had loads on his van but not sure what he used them for, perhaps for freeing bonded screens ?) they are soft & springy & can be tapped in between the joint at various points without damaging the joint faces, then when you have a bit of a gap, you can go back to the sharp blade & whittle your way around until it gives in.

Regards Tim