Cam box gasket

[Chihua33]

Last year some time I posted this picture and someone said it looks like my cambox gasket is the culprit for the leak.
Picture is laying under the front right of the car.

My question is, if I wanted to change that out, is there any hidden things that I would have to do? I've never done any engine work like this before so i'm pretty hesitant on doing it myself. I know timing belt should be changed and tensioner and possibly water pump.

I did take it to a shop and he said that it looks like the cam box leak too, but he said he couldn't give me an estimate on how much it would cost because of the age of the car, so I don't want to take it in and end up spending more on this then I did the whole car!.

Thanks for any help/advice!

[azruss]

not a simple job, but pretty straight forward. Plan on having to reset your cam gap as you will be changing the distance between the cam and the top of the valve. This requires a special tool for getting to the wafer and a micrometer to measure wafer thickness. when you remove the cam towers the valve caps with wafer will drop out of the bottom. make sure you keep track of which goes where. I would measure your gap before i took things apart and measure each wafer so you have a starting point. You will have to pull the timing belt.
Set your motor to TDC before you start. mark your dizzy alignment before you start as well. both body and rotor location. the dizzy is twisted out, so mark the point when it clears so you will know where to start on assembly.

[Chihua33]

Crap...that pretty much made up my mind.
Reading that scared the heck out of me, no way will I be touching any of that.

[vandor]

It could be the distributor leaking, or one of the exhaust manifold studs. Stud #2 and #4 thread into oil return passages, so if they are loose they can leak oil.

Clean the area well and then see where the leak is coming from.

[Chihua33]

Good call vandor, I will have to try that once spring finally arrives in Wisconsin...
Sure would be nice if it was in an easier spot to clean too!

[majicwrench]

Folks always want to "clean" before looking for leaks, I don't understand. You could spend a lot of time trying to get it clean enough to do you much good. I'm a professional mechanic, 35 years. I don't have time to clean engines, I need to fix things.
Finger work well. Oil goes down. You are looking for liquid oil, not the kind of brown sludge that is everywhere on an old engine. Stick finger underneath valve cover. Any liquid oil?? Now under cam box. Oil?? Exhaust studs. Oil?

And how much oil is it really leaking?? These things leak, and you can spend a lot of time and effort chasing leaks or you can be driving the car. I drive mine, a few drips in the driveway don't bother me. Oh, and the oil under the car helps with rust prevention.
Keith

[Chihua33]

That's what it is right now, just a few drips here or there. I'm not really that concerned by it in all honesty.
But I do need to replace my timing belt, so I wasn't sure if this would be a good time to just take care of it and be done with it.

[majicwrench]

If it twas me, I would just deal with timing belt. While doing belt, take a good look at cam crank and aux shaft seals for leakage.
Keith

[azruss]

I usually spend more time cleaning than wrenching on a repair item. the next time i am working in that area, i always appreciate starting with the clean surfaces.

[redcars]

Plus one for Csaba and Keith. If it was me and I knew for sure that the cambox was leaking and I was going to do the timing belt I would also do the cambox gasket. I have did it and it wasn't to bad a job. If you can do the timing belt you can do the cambox gasket. As far a the valve adjustment they could end up close and be good to go. From my experience when the cambox gasket leaks it leaks onto the exhast manifold making smoke. If it leaks very much it makes a lot of smoke. This makes me think that it is not the cambox gasket.

[srwilson]

It's really not that bad of a job to replace the cambox gasket. Checking/measuring valve cam clearances and shim thichness is no problem either. If I can do it, you can.

When is the last time the valve clearances was checked? You might find a better running car after they've been adjusted.

I had a leak and it turned out to be the cam plate/cover at the end of the cambox toward the firewall. Check there too. I put a little monkey snot on it and its golden!

[Chihua33]

Well, my car sat for 8-10 years before I bought it, so I have no idea when the clearances were checked?
She runs pretty good as is right now. I actually just fired it up last night, it's been sitting all winter and this was the first time I've tried to start it, fired up first crank.

I'd imagine an overall tune up would help her run better, I'm just scared I'll start tearing it apart and end up screwing something up and then I won't have a running car anymore lol