Cam Shaft Caps **HELP**

[superclarkey]

on my RB20DET as I was removing a few of the camshaft caps and the bolts were very tight in the cap, i.e. I couldn't pull them out, so I had to try and remove them so I could clean the shank up other wise torque settings would have been very wrong :wack: (so it was not the tread that was tight, but the shank welded to the inside of the cap)

I soaked the bolts for about 5 days with wd40 and tried heat and everything, i was told to just undo them and they should be fine, well there are not fine the caps are twised :eek: so you have idea of how tight they were griping.

I had to pull the bolts out from the caps with a hydralic puller, they were stuck solid, i don't know how i undid them in the first place :chairshot

Is this common problem?

I had to really go at them to remove the caps, and its damaged the caps only, can these be replaced? i've been told that that i can't and the engine is scrap :eek:

how do i go about replacing them, there is 4 caps on the inlet cam thats gone

I'm so hoping that the head is not scrap.

do i need to have them bored to fit to my head?? can new caps be bought from nissan?

Any help appreciated

[superclarkey]

anyone?

[SteveL]

The caps are machined (line-bored) as part of manufacture of the head and the bad news is they aren't available separately as spare part. If they're twisted as bad as you say then I'm afraid your up for another head.

The reason the bolts stick is that crap (mainly carbonised oil residue) build up between the shank of the bolt and the inside of the cap. When you try to undo the bolt the crap basically jams the bolt solid in the cap.

[superclarkey]

gutted, i paid alot of money for this 32k mile engine can't belive this has happend :'(

Could i not get some caps off another engine and get them line bored too the rest of them?

[SteveL]

Could i not get some caps off another engine and get them line bored too the rest of them?

Yes that's possible...if you were a bit closer I have a head there you could have for free.

Edit: get some quotes first....you might find the machining will be more expensive than sourcing a secondhand head.

[superclarkey]

**bangs head up wall** thanx for the kind offer dude

Its so hard to get parts for the RB20's over in the uk, totaly sucks.

I'm just glad i didn't send the head of before i made this error, one thing is scraping a head, scraping a ported and polished head is just stupid

I may send the head off to Abbey Motorsport (uk) tomorrow and see if they can't do something with it.

If it costs me £500 it would be cheaper then getting a second hand head.

[SteveL]

If it costs me £500 it would be cheaper then getting a second hand head.

WOW, that's about $1300 (maybe more ??).....good luck with it.

[superclarkey]

.

[SteveL]

My dead mint head R.I.P

Well you might be lucky and they can do something with it. If the worst comes to worst let me know and I can ship you over some spare caps from this other head as replacements (you pay shipping, of course ). But you'd still have to have the bores machined/honed to suit.

[superclarkey]

Ops edited the post above and deleted it by mistake, lol it is 4:38am lol

Yes, i will defo keep you in mind mate it wouldn't cost a great deal anyways as they are light as anything.

Ta, i might try and go to sleep and stop worring

clarkey