Triumphrat

kidkazi · 06-24-2007

i dunno why oil is leaking from up there. I first noticed oil last week on my engine on the left side by where the braided wire to the oil cooler is connected to the engine by the cam cover. wiped it off to really see where it comes from. well, i rode it around town and looked at the cam cover to see if oil is still coming out. yup, and i saw tiny bubbles forming just under the gasket(rubber, i think) of teh cam cover. can i just make the cam cover tighter or should i bring it in? any suggestions?

Geoff · 06-24-2007

Be careful of just making it tighter, if you do, go by torque wrench. The bolts bottom out, so that the gasket is not crushed, and they will snap off with bad consequences if over tightened. I would take it apart, clean it up, and put it back together with a small bead of sealer on the gasket.
If you take it in, thats what they will do too only it will be a week
G

BILLYSIM · 06-24-2007

Only 8 or 9 NMs on those bolts! Get a new gasket and install with pure silicone GREASE (non hardening)

[ This message was edited by: BILLYSIM on 2007-06-24 05:38 ]

grayghost · 06-24-2007

IMHO not worth taking it to the dealer.

1. Pull the Cam Cover
2. Wipe the engine mounting surface with a link free rag.
3. Spray the underside of the Cam cover with Carb Cleaner or equivalent and get it spotlessly clean.
4. Using a toothpick apply SMALL AMOUNTS of high temp silicone (Permatex or Hylomar) so you achieve a thin bead in at least 50% of the "U" channel of the Cam cover. All you are doing is getting the silicone to hold the rubber gasket in position when you invert the Cam cover.
5. Invert the Cam cover (put in on it's back on your bench) and put the CLEAN rubber gasket on it and put a heavy book on top of the newly installed gasket (The Triumph Shop manual works well) and go make yourself a coffee.
6. Coffee in hand, CAREFULLY lower the Cam cover onto the engine and visually inspect that the gasket is positioning correctly.

The most important part.....

7. Install the Cam Cover bolts AND using a torque wrench TIGHTEN to the recommended torque spec-----not a nm more! Use a Criss cross pattern (Good Practice to get into to)

I tried to reinstall mine without adding any silicone, and reusing the gasket. Trust me....just use the Silicone method.

Caution for M/C Newbies:
The main reason for using the Silicon sparingly is two fold. First, if you use too much it will ooze out and look like *****. Second and much more important, if you use too much and a hunk of silicone breaks off inside the motor you run the risk of plugging an oil passage and trashing your motor (top end, Cams and rockers). It has happened.

From start to finish (including the coffee break part), if you take your time, you are looking at one hour. Not worth dropping it off at the dealer.

sweatmachine · 06-24-2007

+1
(except that we have no rockers...)

Just to reiterate, be careful with this cam cover bolts! I just got done heli-coiling all my cam caps b/c they stripped out.

kidkazi · 06-25-2007

thanks for the input everyone. just a quick question about torqing. i know that it is important because i have done my share torquing on car engines, but i cannot find a NM torque wrench. I have ft/ib torque wrenches and have found some other metric torque. Do you guys just convert your torque units to NM or is that bad and i need to look for a NM torque wrench?

thanks again.

Quote:

On 2007-06-24 05:26, BILLYSIM wrote:
Only 8 or 9 NMs on those bolts! Get a new gasket and install with pure silicone GREASE (non hardening)