Camshaft Oil Seal

[Roy Lewington 30]

One of my winter jobs is to replace the front camshaft oil seals (910 engine) which I have been assured can be done with the engine in place.   I see they are only torqued to 25 ftlb but will I have a problem releasing the bolt?  So I have some questions:

1 Can it be done, engine in place.

2 Can I buy a cam locking tool.

3 Would a wedge shaped piece of wood tapped in between the two cams sprockets work.

4 Should I make a bar to bolt between the two sprockets.

Any advice gratefully received.    Thanks Roy.

[Sparky 2,068]

Yes, it could be done, but I wouldn't.  But if you must, lock the cams well, hopefully the sprockets come off easily (I've had a couple of bad ones) and try hard not to damage the face on seal removal, and hope you get the new seals seated properly.  There's precious little room to do the job properly.

As you will have the belt off, why not use the opportunity to do it on the bench by removing the towers?  And the bonus of a valve clearance check/adjust, reseal faces etc?

[ekwan 38]

On 30/11/2019 at 16:48, Roy Lewington said:

One of my winter jobs is to replace the front camshaft oil seals (910 engine) which I have been assured can be done with the engine in place.   I see they are only torqued to 25 ftlb but will I have a problem releasing the bolt?  So I have some questions:

1 Can it be done, engine in place.

2 Can I buy a cam locking tool.

3 Would a wedge shaped piece of wood tapped in between the two cams sprockets work.

4 Should I make a bar to bolt between the two sprockets.

Any advice gratefully received.    Thanks Roy.

Although not the preferred method, you could use method 3 to remove the camshaft pulley locking bolts. However, getting those pulleys off could be a bit of a touch & go affair. Hence the advice of getting the camshaft tower off the cylinder head. 

When installing the oil seals, it would be preferable to have the proper installation tool, or alternatively, have someone machine one out for you out of a piece of nylon.

[Roy Lewington 30]

I hadn't really considered taking the towers off but it is a sensible option.  However the car is running really well, no tappet noise, no oil leaks from the cam covers so it seems like a lot of extra work for a £5 seal.  I'll try doing it in place and see how I get on.  Thanks Roy.