cam seal 90 loyale and greetings from new user

[belizeanbus]

Hello all... I just discovered this site and at a very good time. I'm stumped, you might say. My wife drives a 1990 subaru loyale, 1.8, you know the drill. So, last weekend I was underneath it and I noticed A LOT of oil. Everywhere. A month or so ago, at the last oil change, it wasn't there. So...

 

I initially thought it was an oil pan gasket because of where the oil seemed to be accumulating. I took it to my local shop for another look and he told me that the drivers side cam seal is leaking and it's coming down through the shrouds over the timing belts and under the oil pump... again, if you could help me with this, I guess you know what's going on here.

 

So, I decide to get dirty since i have some time off for the holidays... I got new seals, and I pulled the old seals out,...then when I went to put them in, well those bolts were just grabbing at nothing. You know, the bolts that hold in the aluminum, I guess, seal seat, that is the next thing back from the cam pully that the timing belt goes on. So, when I popped them off, the bolts seemed well seated. And when I put them on, the least bit of force seems to have stripped them.

 

So, my questions are....did that little bit of tightening force strip these out, or were they stripped and that's why it's leaking? I guess I'm just looking for guess-work here...the real question is...

 

And...What now? Is there a way to fix this problem that is marginally simple? Or do I need to pull the engine, drill these out and then put some helicoil or thread repair thing on it...?

 

I appreciate any responses.

[Ross]

Steel bolts/screw in aluminium castings can corrode together, hence stripping then when they are removed. THe solution depends on how badly they are stripped.

You may be able to fit a longer screw?

Failing this, if the hole is not badly stripped, you could try wrapping thread seal tape around the screw. I have heard this works sometimes, but i don't really like the sound of it for important components.

A helicoil is the best option. If the hole is blind (i don't know much about ea82s so im not sure on this) you can heliciol safely without taking the component out. If it is a thru hole, you will probably need to remove the component, to collect the chips from tapping.

Hope this helps.

 

By the way, the use of helicoil kits does not usually require drilling. You just run a special helicoil tap down the hole. Drills are sometimes required in steel, but seldomly in aluminium.

[MilesFox]

i strongly recomment using a 1/4" drive ratchet when turning these 10mm bolts that thread into aluminum. its too easy to over torque them, the smallet tool lets you feel the torque more. you can tighten down a bolt and it feels like its starting to tighten. at that point it is tight, and any more will strip the thread or even snap the bolts.

 

if you do need to get some torque on them turn the bolt SLOWLY, with slight pressure, so that you arent turning the bolt faster than it can torque up

 

one example is people breaking off intake bolts. the bolts will come out, but if you tturn them too fast you can snap them off without warning!

 

now, you have floppy cam retainer because the hle is stripped out. on one car i have seen a distributor skip a gear, i pulled it out and seen the tooth was chunked. after pulling the cam i realizes that the previous mechanic had striipped out the cam retainer bolts, and the cam "walked" along its bore and this is what led to the disty jumping gear

 

you may have to re-tap or helicoil these holes, maybe you can get away with tapping in a standard thread bolt.

 

if you are reluctant to pull the motor, you can remove the anti pitch bar, unbilt the motor mounts from the crossmember, and place a jack on the trans behind the motor, or a block of wood on the oil pan. you will be able to raise the motor several inches that way.

 

you may have to go the rout of pulling the cam boxes themselves to get good access to tap them or to have to replace them. i recommend pulling the motor if you are going to take tese off, and you can get at the rear seal too.

but, you can take them off with the moto in the car, but the cam cover bolts will be close to the framerail and it may be difficult to get your tools on them, or to get the bolts out without your socket hitting the frame. its more a pain to try installing the cam box motor-incar because the rockers will fall out or get crooked, hence suggestion of pulling the motor. if you do go as far as pulling the cam boxes, you will want to use grey anaerobic silicone(permatex ultra grey, import grey) to seal it up. also, there is an o-ring on the bottom corner for an oil passage, you will want to check or replace those also

 

it doesnt take much torque on these little bolts, my rule of thumb is use a 1/4 drive tool, turn by hand till snug(hand tight) then torque 1/4 turn. if the bolt feels like it wants to turn more, the bolt is at its stretch threshhold and dont turn it any more

 

if you can get the bolt to somewhat catch a tread, try some lock-tite and be VERY CAREFUL with your torque, as long as it can keep the retainer from moving out you will be ok

[stngllhm]

what sucks most about this sitution is now he has to listen to his wife saying "i told you couldn't do it" and "if you had just taken it to the mechanic this wouldn't have happened"

 

are you sue you have the cam retainer snug in its hole. it may not be pushed in enough for the bolt to catch a thread.

 

i hope you can get it fixed with out to much more trouble