James86-951

I have just replaced the Rod Bearings, lifters, head gasket and all related seals & gaskets for my 951. The noise I was chasing is gone. (or so I thought) The rod bearings that came out of the car were perfect, the interior of the engine showed that it had been well taken care of.
After the first day, the noise occured when shifting gears and deccelerating in neutral, it has progressed to a constant noise. (Lifters, i think) I have let them sit in oil before I installed them, but they sat in the cam housing a day or so before I got it installed. Any Ideas?

Der Cupmeister

What kind of noise ?

Peckster

How's your oil pressure? Right up there?

James86-951

Sorry about taking so long to reply, but I was getting towed home yesterday. The oil pressure is great. (4-5 when above idle and 3-4 when idling hot) The engine began to skip on the way home and enventually died. The timing belt appears to be intact, but there was oil spray on the oil filter. I was thinking the lifters were collapsing due to low oil pressure. I was originally thinking the oil pressure reducing valve in the head was failing, but you can see plenty of oil slinging around when looking through the plug holes. Now I think the camshaft seal in the front of the housing has failed. This would explain the collapsed lifters and plenty of oil. I did not see any significant leaks on the floor and the eng has plenty of oil in it. Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem?

chiefbrody

James,

Did you ever get this resolved. I am had a similar problem. I haven't pulled anything apart yet. I am hoping to get an idea where to start.

Thanks.

James86-951

Thanks for the email ChiefBrody. Just for archive purposes, I am posting the result:
The cam gear bolt was coming out. The camshaft was
losing oil pressure and the lifters were collapsing as a result. (The camshaft seal was coming out and damaged) I had not looked at this area because I thought I was looking at a rod bearing problem or a piston slap. The previous owner did not tighten the bolt correctly to spec. I found this problem when the bolt came out far enough to cause the rotor to wobble and shatter inside the distributor cap. I am just fortunate that the gear stayed in time and no further damage occurred. I replaced the gear and woodruff key. The camshaft keyway was walled a little so I put in the key with epoxy. (A local shop verified this is what they do in cases like this.) I re-assembled the engine and it has been running like a top ever since. (Great oil pressure too!)

Let me know if you have any other questions.

sam

Darn does that sound familiar, only I was the previous owner that screwed it up. I didn't get off so lucky though. Cost me a cam and cam housing. I opted for a new set of cam followers also because I fealt the ones I had were fried.

I was caught on the road with mine, and everything was fine from an instrument check perspective, but the lifters (followers) started making a hell of a racket. I made it home, then I discovered the problem and associated damage.

Sam

sm

James,

How many miles were on the rod bearings before you replaced them?

And what tools do you need to tighten the camshaft gear, just for future reference.

TIA,
simpson

James86-951

The car had 136,000 miles. The bearings were free of damage. The cylinder bores were perfectly smooth with the cross-hatch still evident.(I took photos to use as a reference.)The car has always had synthetic since it was new.

I used a T30 or T40, I think, the socket did not fit great, but held the torque until the wrench clicked. I would reccomend getting the correct socket though. I also put a nice dab of thread locker 271 to make sure this was not going to happen again.