Cam Cover Torque?

[davery]

Are both the cam covers and intake plenum torqued to 18 ft lbs?

[vandor]

They are all 6mm bolts, so my guess would be that neither are. 8mm bolts usually get torqued to 14-18 ft-lb, so I assume 6mm ones get torqued to a lot less, maybe 6-8 ft-lb?
You'd need a small torque wrench for that, as most regular ones only go down to ~20 ft-lb. I don't know anybody that would use a torque wrench for such small bolts, just hand tighten them.

[So Cal Mark]

I tighten them to 6 ft lbs

[davery]

They are all 6mm bolts, so my guess would be that neither are. 8mm bolts usually get torqued to 14-18 ft-lb, so I assume 6mm ones get torqued to a lot less, maybe 6-8 ft-lb?
You'd need a small torque wrench for that, as most regular ones only go down to ~20 ft-lb. I don't know anybody that would use a torque wrench for such small bolts, just hand tighten them.

Including the intake plenum bolts? I'm thinking I should tighten them a bit more than that?

[vandor]

Since I hand tighten them I cannot tell you how much over the recommended torque you can go without stripping them.

[ralphcap]

The cam cover on the exhaust side of my '81 FI 2000 is leaking profusely. I've removed and reinstalled it three times. The oil is dripping down from the bottom of the cover (plate) onto the downpipe such that after backing out my driveway and driving down the street I'm smoking like the "Proud Mary"! I've used three washers, three nuts and a new gasket each time. I did not use a torque wrench but did use varying degrees of tightening each time. It's driving me nuts but at least my neighbors no longer scream "You're on fire!" I recently successfully (I think) changed the head gasket. It seems to be running fine. If it's leaking from above and dripping down the side of the cover I don't see it. Help! I only have about four months left to my driving season!

[aj81spider]

Take it off and check that it's flat. If it was tightened too much it might be warped. Don't use a cork gasket - use a rubber one.

Tighten it hand tight - then another quarter to half turn.

Not being flat will mean you'll never get it to seal.

[ralphcap]

Are rubber gaskets for cam covers available? If so, where?

[So Cal Mark]

it's pretty odd that the cover would leak onto the exhaust. Since you recently had the head off are you sure that the rear cover on the cam housing is not leaking?
Overtightening the cam cover can crack it, I've seen several with that problem

[bobplyler]

A bad distributor seal can cause leaks like that.

[lglade]

When I bought my car it also had a big leak leak from the exhaust cam cover which took a few weeks to isolate. It turned out that there was a 'kink' in the cover gasket, so I replaced them on both sides. Problem solved.

[aj81spider]

Are rubber gaskets for cam covers available? If so, where?

I get them at AutoRicambi

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/GA1-4 ... er-Gasket/

[ralphcap]

Sorry y'all. I thought this thread was about the cam box cover (plate) on the back of the cam box against the fire wall. The cam/valve cover gasket is not leaking. When I have the car on jack stands running I can see it dripping from the bottom of the triangular shaped cover. Now I wonder if the cam box is cracked. Hard to inspect. Not a lot of room back there. Mark, I inspected the cover (Plate). It doesn't seem to be cracked but I'm going to remove it and take another look. The studs seemed to be ok.

[ralphcap]

I removed the rear cam cover (plate) again and found it to be slightly warped. I hammered it flat as best I could and reinstalled it using a rubber gasket. Result....no leaks! Thanks everyone.