Cam seal cover oil holes do not line up? | FerrariChat

Cam seal cover oil holes do not line up?

Discussion in '456/550/575' started by Robbe, Feb 24, 2021.

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  1. Robbe

    Robbe Formula Junior

    Aug 22, 2013
    609
    The Netherlands
    #1 Robbe, Feb 24, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
    Hi All,
    I am in the middle of my 550 engine major, and the cams are back in, timed and all.
    I have put the freshly painted cam covers back on, but now I am questioning something.
    The cam seals sit in a metal round cover, and to replace those seals, the cams have to be removed, to remove that round cover from each cam.
    Here a picture (from a 575, but same system) to see the covers, nr 16. Strangely enough only one cover is shown, but the car absolutely needs 2 covers and seals per head. When ordering a new one, the system also says there is only one needed per head . So maybe the other one is pictured in another diagram ? can't find it...
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    These covers have a half round hole for oil, and a mark on top to place them in the correct position for that hole to line up with the hole in the cylinderhead.
    Below the picture from Moorfan (the marvellous great sorting thread), where these cylinder head holes are clearly visible at the front round edges of the heads.
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    But:
    Now that the cam covers are back on, and I have aligned the marks on the cam seal covers with those on the red cam covers, I noticed that the exhaust covers are not positioned as I had expected.
    The inlet cam/head has a hole at the lowest point, so when the marks are aligned on the highest point, they position the holes perfectly. (at least when the marks at 180 degrees from the hole, which I am not sure of anymore)
    But the exhaust head holes are positioned more towards the inside. The cam cover notch however is also positioned slightly to the inside, so when the hole is 180 degrees opposite, they do not lign up at al!
    here is a drawing of what I think is the situation (camera distorted it a bit, inlet marks are on highest point)
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    -I have not had the two sets of cams off at the same time, so I can't have swapped left to right head v.v by accident (does not mean that a previous mechanic could not have done that. But when the exhaust covers had marks not on 180 degrees but on say 170 degrees, swapping would have made the difference even bigger, right?))
    - So the only thing that could have happened, is that I by mistake swapped exhaust and inlet covers, and both inlet and exhaust are not correct now....

    Question is, is there a difference between the inlet and exhaust covers? I only can find one part number, but for me it would make sense if there are 2 different ones. But as these are not numbered, how do you tell...
    Or is it not all that important if these holes do not aligne 100%?
    Tearing all apart again just to examine the covers (cams out again etc etc), is not something I am looking forward to...
    Can anybody shed some light on this? Thanks!
     

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