You guys didn't tell me not to break the VALVE COVER BOLTS!!!!1!! owned.gif

So I swapped in the 1.8L intake camshaft last night. Easy. I was very happy to see my engine looks like oil is on everything instead of the orange spray paint it seems like everyone else is using.

https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...vecoveroff.jpg

I took a lOng time to put the caps back on. Like <1 turn at a time, going back and forth across the head and using "fingertight" as my torque spec each time, plus pushing down sometimes on the shaft ends to get some slack on the bolts. I got all the caps touching the head, torqued them to 5lbs-ft then to 9lbs-ft (the bolts didn't move at the higher torque). The cam chain looked like it was too loose, until I tightened the bolts down, and that took the slack right out.

Then I slapped some RTV on the "gaps" and put the valve cover back on there. Tighten, tighten, tighten, could they have put more bolts on this part? Anyhow, I couldn't remember the torque spec, if it was 10 or 5-7lbs-ft.

Here's a hint: one of them broke while I was thinking it took a lot of turning to get to 7lbs-ft. sad.gif

5lbs-ft on the valve cover bolts people.

I never thought I would say "thank you Jesus" when I saw a broken bolt sticking up out of my cylinder head. I was happy it wasn't broken off IN the head - it broke about 1/4" proud of the top of the head, and it came right out with pliers.

ANYhow it's in and I'm not overwhelmed by the new power, but I drive like a grandma when I'm commuting to work.

Pictures? From me? oh, you twisted my arm.

My engine, less the valve cover
https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...overoffbay.jpg

Use a big wrench to turn the engine over so the timing marks line up. Put some cardboard on the gasket surface if you use a crescent wrench, so the points on the bottom of the wrench don't mar the metal the gasket seals on sad.gif
https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...urnforcams.jpg

The caps are numbered and have arrows. Arrows to the left, numbers increasing as shown, in case you get yours mixed up. wink1.gif
https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...cs/camcaps.jpg

The new cam is part number 971101B (and it has the funky orange spray-paint oil residue! ) The mark on the new cam is less prominent, but it's in the same spot. The white mark is a little harder to see.
https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...cs/971101B.jpg

Timing marks. 5 links people. Count 'em.
https://i349.photobucket.com/albums/...s/cammarks.jpg

I'd put photos of reassembly but it looks just like the stuff I already put up, or else it looks like a stock engine bay laugh.gif

looks good-...

what type and brand of oil do you use?

any oil additives?

how many miles are on the engine?

enjoy the cam!

Hah, been there, done that. My ex did the same thing when installing my cam. But he couldn't get the broken bolt out, so had to pay to have my extra head machined and installed. You're real lucky you got it out of there ok!

He broke a valve cover bolt, you broke a cam journal bolt right? Big difference!!!

Oh yeah, come to think of it it probably was a cam journal bolt. I'm trying to put those entire 3 years I spent with him out of my memory, so, yeah it's a little fuzzy in there.

ah ok... i remember you talking about it and i didnt think it would cause as big as fuss if it was a just a cover bolt.

Even if it had been a journal bolt, a good machine shop should have been able to git 'er dun. Water under the bridge at this point eh?

For the vast majority of its 'life', and with maybe 3 exceptions including the factory conventional oil break-in of the engine, I've been running

Mobil 1 10W30 synthetic (used to be tri-synthetic 'til they redesigned the bottles) and either Hyundai OEM or Purolator PureOne (PL14459?) filters.

Every whenever I feel like it, I'll run a 1/2 pint of Chemtool B12 or some similar nasty solvent in there for 4-5 minutes before draining the oil for an oil change. Every whenever I feel like it & can afford it, I'll run a 1/2 quart of Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase and 4.5qts of the Mobil 1.

At 130,000 miles, I'm pleased to say (thank you Jesus! ) that it doesn't use any noticeable amount of oil, and it never smells burnt when I change it at 4000-6000 mile intervals (a.k.a. when I get around to it). We took delivery of this car with 29 miles on the odometer, and that's the ONLY thing I'm glad about when it comes to buying a new car: I get to break it in properly.

good job bullfrog. it's good that everything turned out right. make sure you reset the computer as well if you didn't already. does it sound any different? i'll do this to my second engine, but not the one i have now. it's got too many miles.

it looks good, but from what i hear it's the valves and pistons that justify how good the engine is. i wonder what a bad engine looks like and i'm not just talking about deposits and buildup.

It doesn't sound too much different, just runs a lil rougher. That's in addition to the 1.8L ECU that's already causing it to run a lil rougher. The CEL popped up the first drive with the new cam (didn't reset it when I installed the cam) and the ECU may be coming out because my car keeps saying P1127 after 2 drive cycles. W/ the cam it pushes a little harder which was the point.


bad engine... how exactly do you mean?

That's not funky spraypaint.. that's shit oil fusing to the cast peices.

You used an adjustable wrench AT THE CAM to crank the motor? Why not move that adjustable wrench to the crank and do it that way? The metal flakes + the wear on the lobe face MAY or MAY NOT translate into a clogged oil passage... you may get lucky and just have the filter catch it.

In any case, valve cover bolts are a b****. I only have 2, but they MUST be torqued in sequence (a really easy sequence) to get down properly. It shouldn't run rougher at all. Specifically, the extra overlap (what 3 degrees-ish) would be un noticeable to the human "sense".

I once did a cam swap for this engine, and it was missing the CPS notch: Yeah it ran rough! If in doubt, clean up the face of the CPS and make sure the notch on the cam isn't too short or too long: one millimeter is all it took to make a Pontiac 6000 of mine to not register after the engine warmed up.

Degree your cam(s).

Enjoy!