960 Valve Cover Gasket

[mxzxrider]

Thanks guys.
I'll try to take a picture in a bit. I know the 2 seals up front are identical. Are the 2 rear seals identical as well? It just dawned on me I only ordered 1 rear seal!!! Crap.
Do I install the seals on the shafts during reassembly or push them in after assembly?
Is changing out the waterpump pretty straight forward?

[precopster]

Install the new seal on the cam sensor side, I am still running my 960 with only one seal and just the cap on. To this day hasn't leaked a drop!!

I think it's because the head leans to the exhaust side.

[mxzxrider]

OK. The cams ended up popping up after a few minutes. I've snapped a couple pictures.
The o-ring around the plug well that was fullof oil was definitely blown out.
I've got the cover side cleaned up, at least all the old gasket material. There is a lot of brown staining. Does this need to come off as well?
This may sound like a really stupid question, but where exactly around the cover does the new gasket meterial get applied? Obviously around the perimeter, but what about towards the inner of the cover? Every flat spot? Want to make sure I do this right. Thanks for all the help.
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac21 ... ver002.jpg
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac21 ... ver001.jpg
http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac21 ... ver003.jpg

[precopster]

Didn't answer your question about installing the cam seals. PLEASE DON"T press them in and sandwich them. They will likely skew and leak.

For the rear you will need a cam seal driver much like the one pictured; you can make it yourself from some plumbing pipe. Width is 1.73 inches and 0.6 inches deep. Bolt is M7 x 1.0mm X 1.75 inches

For the front an appropriately sized socket and light tapping with a small hammer will drive them in.

With the sealant the most effective way is to roll it on with a small paint roller. I Used one which was two inches wide.

Clear the sealant from the small oil galleys with a nail. Clean the tops of the lifters, number them with a marker and remove them as you don't want any of the crud getting between them and the lifter holes.

What's your plan to get the cover down quickly and keep the cams from damaging the head?

[mxzxrider]

"Clean the tops of the lifters, number them with a marker and remove them as you don't want any of the crud getting between them and the lifter holes."
You've stumped me here. Not sure what you mean by lifters. There is nothing left to remove from the cover. There are 6 "posts" sticking out of the head that will mate up with holes in the cover. Do I remove these?
So I'm basically going to spread the gasket material over the entire flat surface of the cover using the roller and then clean out any holes and oil galleys.
The fan belt and 2 tubes of gasket material showed up in the mail yesterday. Still waiting for the spark plug o-rings and front/rear seals and water pump. I'm going to investigate how to hold the cams to the cover today. Front looks easy enough with some wire, but the back not so easy. Any suggestions?

[precopster]

The 3rd photo you took shows some of your lifters (there are 24 of them, each one sitting on top of a valve) which are round shiny topped oil filled items that the cams sit directly on.

Number them and remove them as the old gasket material will scratch the lifter bores if it gets in b/w them and the lifters. They are very much like 24 pistons in round machined chambers. Just grab and lift each one out. That's why I mentioned the Kerosene in the first post; you'll want to run some down the lifter bores to help clear any used gasket, dirt etc down into the sump then change the oil. When replacing them use clean engine oil to lubricate their sides and place them back in their original positions. In my pic you can see that they have been removed so I can clean everything out.

With the back of the cams very hard to hold them. I made my own holder (which broke) out of pine flooring, did you read my earlier post about this?? ) Also the cam holders are available on eBay but are pricey

Have a look at this, too: Volvo 5-cylinder: How to Replace the Head Gasket particularly page 6 Cylinder head removal

[mxzxrider]

Hey precopster!
It's been awhile since I've had any time to work on the car,but I spent some time today.
I've got everything cleaned up in good shape. I put the bolts in both ends of the cam shaft and think they'll hold ok with some wire. I actually wired them in without any sealant on the cover just to practice handling the cover and flipping it over. I couldn't get the cover to come down and hit the top of the head,even though the cams were being held snug against the cover and all my marks were lining up. Is this normal? Does it take some torque on the bolts to start pulling everything together?
1 more question concerning applying the sealant: All flat surfaces get a layer of sealant, correct?

[precopster]

From my earlier post:

When retorquing the 46 bolts you may want to use a rear cam holder kit which you can buy from eBay and wire the front cams to the top cover. Another method I've been using lately is to use a battery drill on the lowest torque setting and working my way from the centre torque each bolt and go back around until it is fully down (this takes about ten minutes and patience is required as you don't want to use any one particular bolt working against all the valve springs as the thread will strip)

I always use a rear cam holder as well as wiring the front. Did you look at the link to the head gasket tutorial?

If you can catch one thread you can get the cover down, but don't just turn that one thread repeatedly as it will strip. Just torque until the drill clicks then proceed to another thread.

Coat one side of the surface, I usually coat the cover.