| Author | Message | ||
     Mxer83 |
I would like to remove my cam cover for powdercoating without removing ex.pipes or rotating engine down. Is this possible? Anyone tryed it with a cut off wrench, all input appreciated | ||
| Xb9 |
You have to rotate the engine, & remove the rocker boxes to relieve the tension from the valve springs. Pretty sure you have to remove the header also. | ||
| Daman |
You dont have to relieve the tension from the valvesprings. He's not removing the cams. I have the micron headers and the header rotated out of the way when I decided to paint my cam cover. I dont think its possibe to remove it without removing the stock headers. It doesnt take long to rotate the motor. | ||
| Tim |
I guess it comes down to what you "can" do and what you "should" do. If your comfortable with the thought of the pressure of the valvetrain pushing down on the cams with only one end being supported, go for it. | ||
| Xb9 |
You'll have fun getting the cam cover back on with tension on one or two of the cams. You will also take the chance of scoring the outer cam bushings forcing the cover back on. Service manual says to remove the rocker boxes, it's not that big a deal to pull them after the engine has been rotated. Do it right or taking chances with shortcuts - your choice. (Message edited by xb9 on January 01, 2006) | ||
| Al_lighton |
You only need to remove ONE rocker box. then you rotate the flywheel until the other cylinder is TDC on the compression stroke. Plenty of stories out there of folks that have done it without removing the valve spring pressure on all 4 cams, but I wouldn't do it that way myself. Al | ||
| Daman |
I took my cam cover off and put it back on without touching the valves. So far everythings good, personally I dont use the service manual except for torque specs because a lot of the steps are unneccesary. Just like technicians charge by the book, but usually spend less time completing the job then what the book says because they know what steps are important. | ||
| The_old_poop |
Al's method works very well. Whatever you do, don't forget to pull the ignition rotor or you will have all four cams looking you in the face when you turn the cam cover over. Was this a good thing for me to know? If this happens you will be pulling both rocker boxes to put them back.  | ||
| Mxer83 |
thanks for all your input guys. I think I will hold off powdercoating cam cover till I do other engine work, if I am going to rotate motor I want to do other things too. ,,,Greg | ||
| Odie |
Greg, I wanted to do the same thing but figured I would wait until I went in for new cams and other work. I will also do the header at the same time so I figure I'll wait until I can do it all at one time. | ||
| Blake |
Al, Do you have to drop ("rotate" to use Mxer's word) the motor to remove one of the rocker box covers? | ||
| The_old_poop |
Blake, I was able to remove the rear box without doing anything with the engine. Al sells a rocker cover wrench that allows you to remove the cover bolts that are directly under the right side frame tube. You could shorten a allen wrench, but I opted for Al's instead. I had to remove the isolator mount on my head (98 S3) because it was notched to clear the rocker cover, but not enough to allow cover removal. I suspect if there had been clearance to remove the front cover, I would not have needed to lower the engine to complete the job. If I hadn't pulled all four cams out with the cover, removing the rear box would have done the job. |
