RSR Seal Installation

[TroyGT]

I've been chasing some very minor oil leaks on my 86 and this past weekend decided to install RSR seals on my rocker arm sleeves. I didn't find too much about this on the board, so I just ordered the seals from our host and jumped in blind.

To my surprise, this is a very, very, easy modification to make. The next time you pull your valve covers for anything, go ahead and order these seals too. Each sleeve requires 2 seals, and they slip on each end and fall down into a circular slit that makes the sleeve expand. They are thin rubber seals, about the size of a penny, and they stretch over and pop onto the sleeve easily.

You'll need a 5mm hex key and possibly an 8mm key to hold the end with. Loosen the 5mm bolt and slide the sleeve out of the rocker arm, pop the seals on, and slide it back in through the rocker arm.. re-tighten with the 5mm key. The seal comes only on the 5mm side. If you have trouble with the sleeve spinning or the opposing end turning, stick an 8mm key on the other side to hold.

The only problems you should encounter with this, besides the tight quarters, is the cam may have a some pressure on the rocker arm you're working with. You can alleviate the pressure by turning the fan wheel with a 22mm socket or by just bumping the starter for a second to turn the cam a little. I've done the left top and left bottom. The top is tight, but the bottom was easy for me. I have not cat and I do have a euro pre-muffler with the stock exhaust and heat exchangers. I would think most people would want to do both lowers first since that is where the majority of the leaks would be. I did my left three lowers in 30 minutes while on ramps, then buttoned everything back up. Not too bad.

I was dropping a couple of quarter-sized drops of oil daily and I'm hoping this will take care of things. When I opened my lower valve cover, I could see that I was getting engine oil in the dry area and the sleeve bolt was wet on the dry side. I'm almost positive I was getting some oil leakage from this area.

I'll report back if they help or not... but they sure seem like small bit of insurance against the oil leaks that most of us experience. When I do my right side next weekend, I'll take a few pictures of the process and add to this post.

-Troy

[Wil Ferch]

Great post, Troy.....

Factoid...somewhere in the back of my mind it's telling me the factory spec for bolt tightness of the rocker is wrong.... too low of a value. I think it was the people at Otto's who discovered you need to clamp down about 25% over spec value.

Anyone else confirm please...to add to this excellent post?

- Wil

[TroyGT]

Yes Wil, I heard the same thing and did indeed wrench mine down tighter than spec.

-Troy

[Wil Ferch]

I believe the spec 11 ft-lbs ( 11 Nm) ... should be 18 ft-lbs.

For pics and illustrations..see also Bentley Carrera manual , p.151-7.

- Wil