Using head studs twice?

Madsimilius · Madsimilius's Garage

Hi , i have a small oil leak between the heads and cam housing, from what i understand i'll have to loosen the head studs to be able to fix this. The engine has been rebuilt before and i'm quite sure the heads studs are hi quality, in that case is it safe to use them once more? Maby a way i can measure this? New quality head studs cost 600-700$.
If it's to risky i will wait until i can comfortably afford new quality head studs, and just drive with the oil leak for now :/

If they were stock i wouldn't hesitate about buying new arp's .

My engine was running 1.2bar on the cis, but now with efi i think i'll run about 1bar.

Flat6pac · 03-19-2014, 12:58 PM

If youre leaking between the heads and the cam carrier, there is no reason to loosen the heads. Just pull the cams then the carrier, clean and reseal.
Bruce

E Sully · E Sully's Garage

Are you sure the leak is between the heads and cam housing, and not from a rocker shaft?

Madsimilius · Madsimilius's Garage

Ok, thats what i at first thought, but when reading about tear downs they always tell you to take the heads and cam housing of at the same time. Anyway this is good news

Not really sure E Sully is it a bigger chance to find the leak there? That seems like a good idea to have a look at first. I thought it was a cam housing lid seal at first, but i now see that it's somewhere closer to the heads.
The oil drips down on my heater boxes and poisons me when i drive it hard haha :P

Madsimilius · Madsimilius's Garage

You might have saved me a lot of time here E Sully ! Thank you

E Sully · E Sully's Garage

I hope that takes care of it. I installed the RSR seals on my rocker shafts, and made sure to torque a bit higher than the original specs.
It can be difficult to track an oil leak with all the air blowing around these engines.

RedCoupe · 03-21-2014, 01:55 PM

Madsimilius, when you pull the cam carriers off of the heads, clean the machined surfaces on top of the heads and put a big straight edge across all three heads to make sure that the surface that the cam carrier sits on is flat with no gaps. This is especially important because the engine has been rebuilt before, and there likely was machining done to the heads and/or cylinders. Any noticeable gap is an opportunity for a leak.