Myself, and many others have the issue where oil leak into the plug tubes from between the lower cam carrier to head interface. Normally, one has to take off the front cover and the entire timing drive to reseal it.
Does anyone make some press in tubes as a sleeve that you could tap in as a press fit to seal this instead of taking it all apart? It would act similarly to a crankshaft main seal sleeve.
Very slight press fit, thin material, plenty of room for the plug and a socket to fit down there, and since its a press fit, it would seal out the oil from leaking in…
Im wondering if someone could make this as well if we have proper dimensions from a a torn down engine, or someone with a very small bore gauge? I could calculate material thickness and tolerance from these dimensions to form a good seal.
talking to my machinist and engine build guys at work, as long as the ID provides enough clearance for the socket, give it a light press of about 1/2 a thou, seal it with some blue loctite, it will work as intended.
When i designed a head and valve cover for a prototype engine couple years back, I incorporated some spark plug tubes, which then sealed at the top via some radial seals. This was a thicker material than a “sleeve” in question, but the same principal. It sealed in the bottom of the head via loctite and a 1.5 though press fit. No oil was seen the tubes… I measured the head plug bore of an A4 2.0 just now, 22.81mm, dont know what our head plug bore is, but will see if there is some pre machined brass stock similar to this size.
We have that entire motor that I was doing the motor piece by piece look at. With the weather being above freeszing I can try to get you some data to help out.
Your idea sounds great. I would like to do whatever I can to help as I have always thought this OEM seal under the cam gurddle was a terrible idea.
The idea would totally work, just the matter of getting it done. My machinist at work said GTFO when i told him i need 10 of these units as its not something he could do on a lunch break or two for me. It definitely can be done, just takes time/money. Im not sure how much a machine shop would charge to make something like this.
regardless, im wondering if you could get me the height from bottom of head to say .5" above the carrier/head interface (no need to sleeve it all the way up…but maybe would be good to prevent the valve cover gasket leaking in/if it does)
the bore at the bottom of the head, the bore of the lower cam carrier (in at least 3 areas axially), and the OD of a spark plug socket. I know ECS has a long thin profile one that may be smaller than normal sockets too.
That should be it. I have found a few pieces of stock brass and aluminum that would get us close, but would still need the ID machined larger and the OD machined then polished down.
I think even if we just got one made we could then look for a sorce to copy them. I’ll get you some measurements in the next few weeks. I was going to go over there tonight but it decided to snow all day and night.
Did anything ever come of this idea? I have access to some CNC machines and can have them made easily. My S8 has oil in the plug wells and I have no intention of pulling the engine to fix that. If we make some and they work on my car they can be reproduced in any quantity.
We have just been doing a simple cheap fix of a rubber tube in the plug well. Works flawless and it’s cheap.
What size rubber tube? Thats much easier