tappet cover leak

[hdavy]

I have a persistent oil leak from the rear tappet cover on LH side of engine. Front cover has breather pipe which is clear. There is slight oil vapour from this on start up. Also rocker cover has rubber pipe to carb, also clear. Have tried new cork gaskets to no avail. Got new cover from Moss. This is concave shape. They do not offer convex but fits the same. Leak now too bad to drive the car. Other Minors parts suppliers only offer gaskets not new covers. Note some offer neoprene gaskets rather than cork. Anyone tried those? Any other ideas?

[panky]

I've not tried the rubber ones but from what I hear I wouldn't bother. You say there is some vapour from the breather - is it the chimney type or just a pipe bent downwards, is there excessive vapour when you take the oil filler cap off? The chimney type should be connected to the inlet on the carb, It could be that an earlier rocker cover with a vent has been fitted, try piping up both vents to the carb (not the filter) with a T piece and make sure you have a vented cap on the rocker box.

[aupickup]

if the leak is that bad you can not drive the car then it must be gushing out

[Boomlander]

If the fixing bolt on the tappet chest cover is too tight it will distort the cover and cause oil to leak, it has to be just nipped up so that it gently compresses the cork gasket. Don't bother with the rubber gaskets, the cork ones should do the job.

[bmcecosse]

The concave cover MUST be used with the neoprene gasket..... Surely they told you that when buying the cover....

[hdavy]

Thanks guys. It's a strange problem because although the oil leak is heavy it's not coming out under pressure. The front vent pipe just bends down towards the ground. There is no smoke from rocker and removing the cap makes no difference. No sign of any gasket trouble. I did clean off old gasket carefully.It does seem that the problem maybe distortion of the cover though I did start with nipping it up gently. Although I bought the concave cover from Moss they do not sell neoprene gaskets. In fact they seem a bit confused because they firstly say 'enquire' for concave cover and then only supply those and don't have convex. Nobody else sells new ones. No choice but to try again for the 4th time with the convex cover and cork gasket, meantime will order neoprene gasket and if have to go round again will use that with the concave cover. If that doesn't work may shoot myself or the car. It's actually an MGA but the covers are the same as Minors. It's particularly a pig of a job because the bolt goes in very close to the exhaust manifold and very tricky to line up when replacing..

[bmcecosse]

The cork gasket is too thin, don't waste time trying....

[Declan_Burns]

The 6mm NBR rubber gasket that I made sealed fine. Have fitted quite a few to various cars-never had any problems.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Regards
Declan

[liammonty]

It's likely that I'll be shot down in flames, chastised, excommunicated and driven out of the country for making such a dangerous, foolhardy suggestion, but what the hell, I'll do it anyway. I'd put a tiny smear of Hylomar ( ) on both sides of the cork gasket if that's all you've got. That's what I did when I rebuilt my engine, and it's worked beautifully.

On a serious note, Declan's solution looks wonderful and would undoubtedly be the best bet, but I don't have the skill or patience to fabricate something so nice.

Now let's place bets on which happens first:
1. I get into trouble for giving wreckless advice surrounding the use of gasket goo.
2. My engine runs all its bearings due to sudden and fatal ingress of aforementioned gasket goo to the oilways.

[philthehill]

I am surprised that no one has come up with the idea of producing alloy covers for the cam follower chests similar in design to the attached link.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-ROYAL-ENF ... 20f04933ec

This is a link to an Aquaplane cam follower chest cover for a side valve Ford. Something similar would look nice on a Minor

http://www.smallfordspares.co.uk/produc ... hest-cover

No distortion means no oil leaks.