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Just thought I'd share this mod that I did ( years ago so I know it works ).

Firstly, the idea is to get some air to flow through the coil pack area while keeping the cover fitted to stop crap from ending up in the plug holes.

It's very simple but quite effective.

Simply remove the upper cam belt cover, use a hole saw to cut one largish hole and then another smaller hole below and then remover the middle bit to make one teardrop shaped hole. Clean up the edges and hit it with some touch-up paint. That parts now done.

Now, behind the cam gears is the tin shield seperating the cam gears from the cam valley area ( where the coil packs are ). In there are some louvers ( from the factory ). Just carefully open them up more and the jobs complete. Simple huh :)

Here's some pics of the finished product.

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https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/124648-coil-pack-cooling-mod/
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That's a great DIY; I think your concerns about sand and crap going into your timing belt area can be avoided if you manage to put some sort of filter over the hole on the cam cover.

Something like wire mesh or flyscreen material.

just curious has to how much airflow this would let in, as opposed to just leaving the cover off. the air would get to the first coil and get majorly slowed down by it.

as for the crap getting into the timing belt casing, you could just put a tube through. you may have to adjust the shape of the hole to make sure it isn't going to get in the way of anything.

  • 2 weeks later...
just curious has to how much airflow this would let in, as opposed to just leaving the cover off. the air would get to the first coil and get majorly slowed down by it.

as for the crap getting into the timing belt casing, you could just put a tube through. you may have to adjust the shape of the hole to make sure it isn't going to get in the way of anything.

Sorry for the late response :cheers:

With your engine running ( at idle ) CAREFULLY put your hand in front of where the hole would be and feel the air pressure that is applied to that spot via the radiator cooling fan. There's a reasonable amount of pressure / flow there even at idle. So, any RPM above that would provide even better air pressure / flow :D

Now, the way I see it, any air flow through the coil pack area ( cam valley ) that's cooler than the intense engine heat that normally accumulates in that area, must be a good thing.

I wouldn't remove the front cam cover all together since it just exposes the cam belt to too much crap and creates too much of a personal risk from the cam gears spinning etc. With the cover in place and the hole cut as described, there is a happy medium between some air flow over the coils and your safety + cam belt protection IMO.

As for the sand and dirt getting in the coil area and in around the spark plugs, I really haven't noticed anything major in there ( yes I do look :blink: ). When you think about it, the chances are pretty average of major sand and dirt getting through your air-con condenser, through your radiator, and projected by your radiator cooling fan directly into a reasonably small hole AND THEN, through the louvers and into the coil area !!

However, if you were to leave the cam valley cover off all together...... I'd say your chances of getting crap in the plug recesses will increase dramatically !!

I suppose at this point it's worth mentioning that personally, before I remove spark plugs, I always blast the area with compressed air and vaccum at the same time ( using one of those long thin nozzles that get's deep in the plug recess ) so I really don't worry too much about dirt etc getting in the plug holes. ( more incredibly anal traits adopted from my days of working on exotic cars ).

With regards to getting sand and dirt in the cam belt area, maybe you would but I can't imagine it would be anything major enough to cause huge damage. I suppose you "could" put some kind of mesh over the hole but I'd be more worried about "it" getting blown into the cam belt than dirt etc. Maybe I ( or we ) can re-engineer the mod to make it better........

Keep in mind........... This is a mod "I" did and "I" believe works well to cool and prolong the life of the coil packs but if you guys come up with something better, I'm all ears !! :P

  • 4 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

the crap getting the valley is not a huge issue.

i've always had no cam valley cover (even still my coil packs now need replacing, but anyway) and sure i get crap down in my cam valley (if you know what i mean :P ) but the only way this could be a problem is if it got into the cylinders when you're replacing your plugs.

I did this just the other day and found there was what looked like woodchips down there, i thought shit have me and my car been doing at night?! that would be real nasty if it got through the plug hole into the cylinder! but still it was only a tiny bit and that was 2 years cumulative crap from when the plugs were replaced last

SO before removing the plug i simply got the vac and sucked all the shit out my cam valley (hur hur hur toilet humour) and thus my coils stay cool and my cylinders clean.

i cant see there being a problem with a little bit of stuff down there otherwise

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