Cracked Cam / Valve Cover, Yep I Did It Too! (PICS) Please Help..

[RacingJake]

You might want to throw that torque wrench in the trash.

[BriTXbike]

I'm with Jake. When I tightened mine I hand tightened, then worked my way out from the inside bolts. I ONLY TUNRED IT A QUARTER TURN on each bolt and once all were done I went back again and tightened MAYBE and 1/8 of a turn. No leaks in the last 3 days \\/

[jonr]

The 2nd use for the "all purpose goo" requires a tube of the stuff, a knife and a slice of bread. Applied to the bread, it makes a wonderful implement for picking up broken glass. :-)

Earl, now that's creative!

-J

[debby]

A bolt with a 10mm head will have a 6mm shank (or maybe 5mm, can't remember). That's the torque reading you would need. Better to go by feel rather than relying on a torque wrench reading. Cheap torque wrenches can be way off. Looking on the positive side, you now should know what *too tight* feels like!

And I agree with Earl - don't use silicone! That stuff can cause major damage when it gets inside your engine (and it will get inside). The pickup screen may or may not catch it. Do you really want to risk blowing up your engine? Anyway, the valve cover gasket doesn't need gasket compound. A light coat of oil on each side of the gasket is all you need.

hth,
Debby

[Wingnut]

Hold it just one darn minute!

Something is not right here. I can see why the first one broke with the incorrect torque but the second one is telling me there may be another problem. And I suspect that it may be that the cover is not sitting down flat before you tighten it. When you put the cover on by hand, or by light plastic mallet tapping, does it sit COMPLETELY flat? If it is not completely flat against the gasket BEFORE you put the bolts in something may be holding it up and that would cause the cracking. And if there is something holding it up it must be right in the vicinity of the crack or at the end corner near the crack. I cannot remember if there are guide dowels in that cam cover or not but if there are, are you sure they are in the right spots so the dowels go into the receses. Inspect the head surface where the gasket goes. Is it dead flat and nothing sticking up? There is something wrong here and its not the way you torqued it, at least not he last time.

[NickNoo]

Well, as a complete skinflint, I prefer to cut my own valve cover gasket out of 2mm thick rubber sheet.

Advantages :
It only costs about £1 ($2) a throw.
It only takes an hour or so to cut out and fit (a scalpel is useful).
You need only tighten the bolts literally finger tight.
No need for any RTV, goo or adhesive as the rubber seals itself nicely.
It's re-usable and will not disintigrate every time you need to remove the cover.
As the bolts are only lightly nipped up, removing and replacing the cover takes about 10 mins and theres NO chance you will break it !

Disadvantages :
None I can think of right now.

[ddaum]

Things just keep getting worse...

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I just got back from the weld shop where they did an awful job of welding the crack pictured above. Now, I'm sure the crack is repaired and will not leak, but while repairing, they ground up the area around the bolt hole pretty good. They didn't use ANY finesse. This is not some hunk of metal that will be thrown under a hood for no one's eyes to look at! It's fixed, but looks like trash. Anyway, I'm going to wait a few days until the next poor eBay valve cover gets to me. I got one for $.99. Yes, that's 99 cents. Good deal, huh?
I do think the torque wrench that I JUST bought IS garbage (AutoZone Special). So that is most likely my problem. I'm going to once again thoroughly inspect the mating surfaces, dowels, gasket, and tach gear. Then just snug the bolts by feel as briTXbike mentioned above. Thanks for all the support. I'm going to post some pics of the weld repair in a few hours and I will keep you all informed of the outcome when I get that other valve cover.

[ddaum]

How to boogar up a valve cover...

Here's what the local shop did to my nice cover. Yeah, they fixed the crack, but with the way it looks now, I'd rather have the crack. Notice how they ground off the top of the bolt hole area. WTF??

[RacingJake]

Hope you all don't have to split your cases cause your going to have a hard time finding a gasket :shock:

[Boondocks]

Here's what the local shop did to my nice cover. Yeah, they fixed the crack, but with the way it looks now, I'd rather have the crack. Notice how they ground off the top of the bolt hole area. WTF??

At least with J-B Weld, you control the appearance yourself without the risk of an untalented welder globbing up the job and overgrinding the mistakes. It's also very strong and can withstand constant 500 degree temperatures.

Hold it just one darn minute!

Something is not right here. I can see why the first one broke with the incorrect torque but the second one is telling me there may be another problem. And I suspect that it may be that the cover is not sitting down flat before you tighten it. When you put the cover on by hand, or by light plastic mallet tapping, does it sit COMPLETELY flat? If it is not completely flat against the gasket BEFORE you put the bolts in something may be holding it up and that would cause the cracking. And if there is something holding it up it must be right in the vicinity of the crack or at the end corner near the crack. I cannot remember if there are guide dowels in that cam cover or not but if there are, are you sure they are in the right spots so the dowels go into the receses. Inspect the head surface where the gasket goes. Is it dead flat and nothing sticking up? There is something wrong here and its not the way you torqued it, at least not he last time.

I have to agree with Wingnut on this issue. Overtorqueing seemed to be the reason the cover cracked the first time, but something else must be wrong for it to have happened again in the same place with less than 1/3 the torque. Blaming the torque wrench is easy, but it might be something else. Wingnut's theory is sound.

Well, as a complete skinflint, I prefer to cut my own valve cover gasket out of 2mm thick rubber sheet.

Advantages :
It only costs about £1 ($2) a throw.
It only takes an hour or so to cut out and fit (a scalpel is useful).
You need only tighten the bolts literally finger tight.
No need for any RTV, goo or adhesive as the rubber seals itself nicely.
It's re-usable and will not disintigrate every time you need to remove the cover.
As the bolts are only lightly nipped up, removing and replacing the cover takes about 10 mins and theres NO chance you will break it !

Disadvantages :
None I can think of right now.

Yes, I am a do-it-yourself skinflint myself. See Valve Gasket - Bye Bye Japanese Supply - Hello, American Pie. I like your method a lot, and will use a rubber sheet the next time I need a gasket.

[tfb]

You're right about that welding -- it looks dead-set atrocious. How anyone could hand that back to a customer and expect payment has me baffled. I'll bet your new (2nd-hand) cover will be a welcome sight!

Mike.

[ddaum]

I'll bet your new (2nd-hand) cover will be a welcome sight!

Your are absolutely right, although I'm not looking forward to cleaning her up. Looks like it's been neglected just a little bit!

[ddaum]

Update!!

Today I finally got everything back together and got the bike running correctly. I cleaned up that 1977 valve cover and installed it on the bike. I re-used the paper gasket (which was new to begin with) and also used a little RTV because I wasn't going to torque the bolts. Then, i tightened the bolts to snug, and then tightened 1/4-1/2 turn more on each one.
While idling the bike today, it sprung a pretty good leak from behind one of the chrome end covers, so I pulled that off and found that the "half moon" plug had literally popped out a little. I immediately pushed it back in with my thumb and the leak stopped, but the movement of the plug seemed too easy to be comfortable with. I checked the torque on the surrounding bolts just by feel. I feel like they could use some tightening, but I'm reluctant to do that out of fear of cracking the cover again, so I'm just going to wait and see if it leaks again in the future. Other than that, everything is great.
If anyone wants that valve cover that I had repaired in the pictures above, I'll give it to you for the cost of shipping. I have the breather cover to go with it.
Thanks all!
Dean