How to remove cam tower spray bar

[Green993]

I'm in the process of cleaning cam towers. How do you get the spray bar stoppers out? Drill?

[Mark Henry]

I'm doing this soon as well, IIRC drill and pull the plugs out then tap for 1/4NPT and use pipe plugs. There's a thread somewhere here for the whole job, do a search.

[MBruns]

I would not drill/tap for pipe threads, the stock plug is available, I do several a week and no issues, drill/tap the plug with a 10-32 and use a machine screw and a bushing to winch the plug out of the hole, a 6 x 1.0 tap and tee handle will lightly thread into the tube to "pull" the tube out of the housing

Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

[Mark Henry]

Where do you get the stock plugs, dealer?
I could make them, I don't know the cost but the dealer is a 3 hour round trip for me.

[earossi]

You can order the plugs from our host or from suppliers such as EBS or Sunset Porsche. The plugs are not expensive and postage is one heck of a lot cheaper than the cost of your 3 hour drive to the nearest dealer.

[WERK I]

Originally Posted by MBruns

I would not drill/tap for pipe threads, the stock plug is available, I do several a week and no issues, drill/tap the plug with a 10-32 and use a machine screw and a bushing to winch the plug out of the hole, a 6 x 1.0 tap and tee handle will lightly thread into the tube to "pull" the tube out of the housing

Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

+1 Takes very little effort to pop those buggers out.

[yelcab1]

Originally Posted by earossi

You can order the plugs from our host or from suppliers such as EBS or Sunset Porsche. The plugs are not expensive and postage is one heck of a lot cheaper than the cost of your 3 hour drive to the nearest dealer.

Show me where to get the plugs and i will buy some ...

[safe]

Originally Posted by yelcab1

Show me where to get the plugs and i will buy some ...

How about Pelican Parts?
90110537900

Oil Splash Tube Plug (4 required), 911/911 Turbo (1974-89) $2.75

[safe]

Drill and tap:


Bolt and spacer to pull it up:


Done:

[Mark Henry]

Very cool Magnus, Thanks

[afterburn 549]

Someone give a reason for not using pipe plugs please.

[KTL]

Gotta resist the urge to over-tighten pipe plugs. Those suckers bite good. I've used 1/8 NPT plugs and they've worked OK in the few sets i've done. But they can be bears to remove. Best to use steel plugs. The brass or aluminum plugs can allow the hex tooling to strip when you're trying to loosen the plug.

Good tip on the spray bar removal. I've done about ten of these spray bar removals and found only one or two of the bars to come out smoothly. Often the bar is obstructed on the way out by some imperfection somewhere in the cam housing bore. Bar comes out with a light groove scratched in it.

For the really stubborn bars, i've had to use a suitable sized drill bit (non drilled end) to drive it out. Once I get the bar sticking out of the cam housing I slip a small screwdriver thru the large holes in the bar to make a T-handle like Mike describes.

[afterburn 549]

well....not to hijack too much, I use threaded plugs.its simple EZ, no drilling.and ..should you have to pull one...piece of cake even in the car !

[Cupcar]

I did it sort of like safe did above, but instead of using just the bolt, I threaded the bolt all the way into the tapped plug and then used a nut working against the bushing to extract the plug.

I was worried about cross threading.

[Green993]

Do you need to extract the tube from one particular end? Also, Do you need to take out the plug on the face of the carrier (the one that does not have the oil bridge attached).

So far I've been able to remove the plug from one end but looking in the tube it looks like other face plug is cross-secting it?

[KTL]

Yes you have to remove the plug w/out the bridge. You can see in the picture that the plug has a point on it. That point is used to properly index the spray bar holes and spray oil in the proper direction. It also serves to line up the spray bar with the drillings in the housing that feed the cam bearing bores

[Green993]

Originally Posted by KTL

Yes you have to remove the plug w/out the bridge. You can see in the picture that the plug has a point on it.

Thanks, good to know. I am having a tough time getting that face plug out. I have it tapped but it does not want to budge.

[Cupcar]

Hydraulic lifter spray bars are broached at the oil line end for a hex wrench that can be inserted to spin the spray tube to assist removal after the plugs are removed.

[safe]

On my 964 3.6 cam housings, pictured above, the spray bar was/is looked in place by a small plug in the middle of the bar, not the big plug (15) at the end.

I removed both end plugs so I could clean it that way, never removed the actual spray bar.

[Cupcar]

Originally Posted by safe

On my 964 3.6 cam housings, pictured above, the spray bar was/is looked in place by a small plug in the middle of the bar, not the big plug (15) at the end.

I removed both end plugs so I could clean it that way, never removed the actual spray bar.

A very good point. I removed mine to modify them. Cleaning does not require removal.

BTW, Harbor Freight here in USA has a nice bottle brush kit wit brushes the right size to clean the bore.