968 engine head oil leak

[designerguy90]

Hello Pelicans!

My 968 has been leaking oil on the top of the engine just behind the Variocam badge and was curious as to where this is originating at.

Also, I'm burning about 1 quart of oil every 500 miles or so, is that normal oil consumption for this engine?

Thanks all!

[flash968]

the leak could be from the variocam solenoid (that thing with 2 screws right above where is says "variocam" in the pic). there is a gasket and an o-ring in there.

or it could be from any one of the spark plug holes. there are circular seals between the tubes for the spark plugs and the head.

your consumption is high. while they say that 1.5 liter per 1000km, and that equates to 1.58 qts every 621 miles, i have not see any car actually use that much unless it sat a lot (thereby having ring blow by until it got really warmed up and the rings seated), or had something wrong. typically it will burn a quart every 2000 or so miles. some don't burn any.

[tamathumper]

+1 on the VarioCam solenoid - the o-ring on it is very thin and easily torn when the cam cover is messed with, and the paper gasket is also thin and delicate. Make sure to grease the new ones up a bit if you change them out, that will help them survive the process.

Leaking spark plug o-rings would hopefully leak down into the hole, not up onto the top of the cover, but if you remove the fuel rail cover (the part with the word PORSCHE on it), you can pop all the spark plug boots and have a peek.

[flash968]

the spark plug o-rings are known to leak up and out of the valve cover due to the compression leakage often found under the valve cover (caused by worn valves or guides). usually though, when you pull the spark plug wire, you also see a puddle of oil down in the tube around the spark plug

i'm betting on the gasket and/or o-ring under the solenoid though

[designerguy90]

Thanks for the responses! I'm gonna be getting the car out tonight so I'll take a look at the solenoid and post my findings.

[designerguy90]

OK, so I took off the engine cover, looked around and whatnot, and saw that the oil is definitely coming from the solenoid. So I removed the wire, and the plate and gasket (both of which are undamaged), and couldn't really see how or why oil is coming up?

What do?

[flash968]

you'll probably have to replace the gasket and o-ring. pretty sure the valve cover has to come off to do that, which means 4 new spark plug seals, a new valve cover gasket, and probably some new rubber boots under the valve cover bolts. you'll likely snap a couple of those in the process too, so be prepared. watch out for the hall sender wires too, as they just love to get pinched under the valve cover when you are reassembling.

by the way, you'll need to undo the fuel lines to get the valve cover off and more importantly to put it back on.

[tamathumper]

Here's a nice document on taking the valve cover off to inspect your VarioCam bits (starts with a foreword on VarioCam, with instructions starting on page 4).

And with pictures.

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s20/sh/1bdd37df-b23b-43eb-bb12-72f10eefe2fa/e12ca0bad7fc1d6789987d77275e754a

[Lear35A]

You do NOT have to take the valve cover off to change the paper gasket and o-ring. Just jiggle and maybe pry a little bit the aluminum piece. It will slide up and off the solenoid. The parts you need are:
999-701-693-40 o-ring $2.02
944-104-463-02 paper gasket $5.61
These are recent Sunset Imports prices.
I see you also tore off the bases of the two rubber supports for the cover. You may want to replace these as well.

[Shifter]

Check the aluminum piece for flatness also, I have seen them warp and cause a leak also.

Have you seen the prices on those lord mounts? I wan to say they are something like 30 bucks each!