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Camshaft Bearing Cap Bolts Binding On The Undo

immelmann

By immelmann,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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immelmann Enthusiast

immelmann

Posted
Posted

I have recently rebuilt my R32 RB20DET engine as the previous owner broke a timing belt and bent valves and damaged the pistons.

I rebuilt it using ROSS forged pistons, ARP head studs and rod bolts with honing and ACL Race big end and main bearings. It's all balanced with a second hand head that looked okay with a Cometic MLS head gasket

I have blocked off the rear oil restrictor between the block and head. I put a 1.2mm front restrictor in as it is a Drift car.

I finally got it running yesterday and it had very noisy lifters (that's what it sounded like to me). I am using Penrite 10W40 running in oil and it has only been running for about 15 minutes but the lifter noise was constant the whole time and didn't ease up. Pulling the oil filler cap off showed oil on the cam and a nice film following it. The factory dash oil pressure gauge read over half way and the oil pressure light went out about 10 seconds after the very first start.

I decided to clean the hydraulic lifters.

I set it to TDC Compression #1 and pulled the cam covers and timing belt off. I took the timing belt backing plate off and cam gears off.

I evenly undid the camshaft bearing caps all along a quarter turn at a time and some loosened okay and progressively.

However, some bearing cap bolts felt like they were binding and at least 4 or 5 felt like they were going to snap - thankfully none did.

I rocked the caps to see if they were actually free of the head and not binding in the cap itself and quite a few seem to have bound in the caps.

I left it there with the lifters still in place as it was getting dark and I'd had enough.

Is it normal for the cam bearing caps to bind up on removal? Do the bolt holes need to be reamed? Will they be just as painful on the install?

Did I do anything wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Shoota_77 Veteran

Shoota_77

Posted
Posted

It's pretty normal.

I just pulled my head apart and same deal, a couple of the bolts seized in the caps.

I rushed through it a bit and just powered through undoing them. In hindsight I would have taken a bit more time and soaked them in CRC to try to loosen them.

I would soak them in degreaser before you re-assemble them to loosen them. The wholes won't need to be reamed. Once the bolts are off give them a quick hit on the wire wheel to get rid of the buildup on them. Probably wouldn't hurt to replace the bolts that were tight in case they got stretched.

  • 1 year later...

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