Repairs to S1 cam cover

[rswaffie]

Hi all,
It looks like the majority of the ‘running-in’ oil leaks are coming from the exhaust side cam cover. The garage that had a look at it suggested that there could be hairline cracks around one or two of the stud holes and possibly elsewhere. They said they can be welded - anyone recommend someone/somewhere to get thus done?

[288gto]

Hi Richard,

For what you will pay someone to weld this properly, you won’t be far off the price of a good second hand one. Welding something like the cam cover without distorting it or ending up with a porous weld is a skill in itself. Someone on here had his cam covers destroyed by a so called specialist.
I know an aerospace welder we use for work who can do it but it could be sat on their shelf for ever before they touch it. Give me a call if no other suggestions come up.

Simon

[Heuer]

SNGB can sell you a pair of new ones: https://www.sngbarratt.com/uk/#!/Englis ... 6d3afe35eb

[MarkRado]

Hi Richard,
I always use Loctite 5910, never got them leakfree without it, do not omit the bore for the tach generator.
Before buying a new cover, make sure you have a crack, maybe try a detecting spray.

[politeperson]

Craven and Nicholas in Boston 01205 364004 did one of mine 4 years ago for £50. Tig welding fixed 2 cracks caused by over-tightening (not me I might add). Been fine since!

Sealing them 100% is a bit of a faff, but now I reckon it takes me 1/2 an hour per side.

My solution for leak free S1 old round cam covers is as follows,

Make sure the mating surfaces are spotless prior. Use a blade if necessary. Check for distortion using a surface, if you have one. If not, just have a go and hope for the best.

Check that non of the studs are protruding further out from the head than any of the others. One or two might not be screwed in properly or even just be different.

Either-
Use a Cometec gasket (expensive), paste the stud threads, then fit the cam cover to the gasket.

or
Use Wynns gasket (in the controllable dispenser) with the paper seals. Glue the gasket and seal to the head, paste the stud threads, then glue the cam cover to the gasket. Dont use too much, just a thin bead.

Use 1/4 inch doughty washers, followed by the copper washers.

Tighten the domed nuts just over finger tight, no more. The early covers distort easily. Ensure the gasket does not slip out of alignment as you tighten.

Check with a sharp instrument that non of the washers are spinning under the domed nuts. This is common as the repro studs/domed nuts can bottom out prior to contacting the washer. Add copper washers under any loose nuts so full pressure is attained.

Use a blade and cloth to remove and excess sealant.

This tends to work.

I have thought about placing rubber seals on the stud shoulders prior to dropping the cam covers on. I dont see why this would not help at it would help prevent oil getting to the underside of the stud hole and it would also help support the cam cover when tightening preventing distortion.

I have never tried it though. In my experience with Jaguars, if they didn't do it from the factory there was usually a good reason.

[rswaffie]

Thanks all for the info.
I’m a bit reluctant to shell out £660 until the quality has been established.
There are some used covers on eBay that are described as being crack free but again taking a bit of a risk at £250.
I may go down the doughty and loctite route but would also like to explore the welding option (taking on board the potential risks involved)

[abowie]

First, just try a smear of clear silicone into the crack, followed by tightening the nut down to 4lbft with a newly annealed copper washer.

I'm teaching myself to TIG aluminium at the moment and a repair like that will be pretty tricky. Not only do you have to get the crack sealed but then you need to get the profile back to original.

The latter is probably the hard part and may never look good.

[Tony]

Have you seen the Solution Welding rods.they are low melting point and just need a Blow torch.
I have never used them but seen them demonstrated at shows.
I do not know if they work but the videos look impressive.
Could work for non structural repairs.
Just an option to try providing you hold the cover down to prevent warping.

Tony

[tim wood]

I’ve seen cracks in alloy wheels welded up to gain air tightness. Presumably they also stay in shape.

[christopher storey]

Tony : I have indeed used such rods for this very purpose, and extremely effective they are . As with most of these things, cleanliness is everything

[rfs1957]

The issue with welding these is that they often end up banana-shaped.

My car had cracks - from overtightening - that had been repaired by VSE with some sort of black epoxy (as had the sump) and they were all perfectly oil-tight ; personally I would try this before going for welding, and there is no way I would ever try the "soldering" method demonstrated in shows - I have a fair bit of welding and brazing experience, yet found those magic-sticks completely impossible to use in practice ; as aluminium drags heat out so fast from a complex shape like that, I would be concerned about getting a correct uniform temperature around the critical zone.

Rob Beere's opinion is that most leaks come from over-polished covers where the seating surface for the copper-washers is no longer flat ; they use a pillar drill, fitted with a spot-facing cutter equipped with a pilot, to flatten the seats of all the cam-cover fixings.

I am sure that they would do a set of your covers for a fee.

I saw the repro covers close-up and thought they were unsatisfactorily different to the originals.

Beere expect to have Dowty-type washers made in copper shortly, so that they look right.

For the time being these are a good substitute ; piling a copper washer on top of them is IMHO a misnomer as the leak pathway remains between the copper and the nut.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11445&p=120859&hili ... ll#p120859

[MarkRado]

Hi Rory,
- offtopic, but what a lovely new avatar!
The seats are off my car at the moment, so I should think twice about what to install

[politeperson]

Yes Rory,
I never knew Mary Berry had such good legs.

[rfs1957]

I knew that calling Louise in from the pool, to lie in the footwell legs akimbo "to hold spanners on the Eiffel Tower frame-nuts", would give me an opportunity to get more views on the Forum.

Suckers to a man.

[Gfhug]

That’s got to be one for our glamour gallery, can’t you post a hi res copy for us all to enjoy