16v Valve gasket results

[ralexander03@snet.net (Rick Alexander)]

If you do the pan, follow the directions to the letter as far as tightening
torque is concerned. The four bolts that go into the bearing carriers are
different in length. Those carriers are very soft and can be stripped very
easily!

Rick Alexander

----- Original Message -----
From: "M. W." <mattwagner@softhome.net>
To: "T. Reed" <treed2@u.washington.edu>; <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2002 12:59 AM
Subject: Re: 16v Valve gasket results


> Well I finished the job, and it took about 3 times longer than I thought
it
> would. But it beats paying somebody a few hundred bucks, and afterwards
> dinner and beer never tasted so good. A few things:
>
> Some of the outer bolts on the valve cover were completely loose, ie
> turnable by hand. The old gasket(rubber) wasnt brittle, and actually
looked
> like it was in ok shape. Makes me wonder if a shop I took it to a few
months
> back fiddled with it.
>
> The Bentley said to torque the valve cover bolts to 87 in,  but when I did
> this I noticed a lot of overhang on the corners of the gasket. A mechanic
in
> the shop said I should only tighten the bolts until it starts to squeeze
out
> like that and stop. I got paranoid about leaks so I loosened them up again
> and tried to set them so they wouldnt squeeze out so much but I was only
> successful in doing that on a couple of the corners. I went ahead and did
it
> to 87 in anyway going by what the mechanic said left it rather loose. The
> left side(while facing the car) looks kind of bad, and there is a little
bit
> of oil that was squeezed out. On the right side, the little half circle
> piece has a bit of oil squeezed out on the top. None of it is dripping or
> running, its just along the edges of the cover and the gasket. I'm
guessing
> this is from loosening and retightening which I'm thinking now was a
mistake
> since I didn't accomplish much from doing this(did manage to get more
> clearance for the spark plug holes though).
>
> The underside of the valve cover was pretty foul looking. Lot of dark
brown
> oil stains. I hosed it down with carb cleaner a couple times and let it
soak
> then wiped it off. Some of it came off, but it still looks rather 'burnt'
> looking. Is this normal? There were some rather thick looking goopy oil
> spots on the screws for the brackets that were around the camshafts and in
> other nooks and crannies as well. Didn't look too good.
>
> I actually had 3 bolts in the rear of the upper manifold. 2 of the bolts
> went into the engine block, and one came from it and had 4 wire contacts
> hooked onto it with a nut. All 3 were attached to two brackets which were
> bolted onto the engine block. I didn't see a way to 'rotate' the manifold
so
> I pretty much took the whole thing off except for the accelerator cable.
The
> Bentley said to put these back on with 20 lbs, so that's what I used, but
I
> swear somebody really really tightened those suckers on there beyond that
> because it took me forever to get them off.
>
> Anyway, I'm hoping that little bit of oil I saw was normal...? I'd really
> hate to have to do this again, even though now it wouldnt take nearly as
> long. I'd like to change the the oil pan gasket too as there is quite a
bit
> of oil coming off it... not to mention the whole front of the engine...
I'm
> really hoping it was just the valve gasket...
>
> Matt Wagner
> mattwagner@softhome.net
>
>
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