change a cam cover gasket without having it leak again a week later

first off here is the facts about punto(or any fiat fitted with an 8v fire) 8v cam cover gaskets

they are only meant to last 2 years or 24k miles before they are changed

if you ever looked at a second forth sixth and so on service on your car at a dealer you will notice part of those services is to check the mechanical tappet clearance on petrol models part of this procedure is to change the rocker cover gasket as the cam cover needs to come off to do so

if you take your car for a service at main dealers it's worth putting a paint mark on the seal so you can check they have changed it then if they don't you can kick up a fuss about oil on your rive way and such lol but the fact is you paid for a gasket in the service and did'nt get it that's fraud

now lets get some tools out

first off you need a 10mm socket undo the 2 bolts holding the air box on top of the engine andput to one side

this is also held down with a clip of some sort same for mk1 and 2

now undo the 4 bolts holding the rocker cover in place

on mk2 there are some coming in from the side and back of the cam belt cover aswell so if the cover wont lift off just track these bolts down and remove also

if any of the four bolts going down into the head are not coming undone do not force them they will snap easily in the head meaning bad news

if they are tight get a ball peen hammer and a flat head punch and give the offending bolts a few sharp hits on top 3 or 4 should do it

then try to ease them off

now remove the old seal from the cover and clean the grove were it sits with some brake cleaner or soapy water best to get as much oil and crud off the cover as posible really inside and out

now clean your hands and place the new seal into the grove spend some time here getting it to sit straight and making sure it's even around the 2 ends were it goes over the camshaft

the reason i say wash your hands is that any oil and rubbish on the seal will cause it not to seal so well so try keep it clean

now you need to remove excess glue from the 4 corners of the top of the head unless of course the last time no glue was used often the case if it was leaking you can use a Stanley blade to cut it away or your finger nails will do

now use a rag and some brake cleaner or degreaser to clean the entire sealing surface around the top of the head and cam caps

now you will need some glue of your own i'm sure loads of people will come on commenting afters saying locktight and such make a similar product but ill just give you the part number for fiats glue after all it is the best

71713687 type it into search on eper

it's just under 10 quid a tube it's also the same stuff used to seal fiat sumps and is almost certainly in stock at all dealers


this is the stuff

you need to put a large pea of this glue in the corners of the head were the seal turns to go over the cam shaft cap as this is were fiat put it when the cars were built and it will leak in the corners if you don't

some people use a little blue hylomar around the rest of the surface aswell but this is not that necessary as they usually only leak in the corners after people don't use silicone glue

here are some pictures of a car i serviced last week (sorry i only had my phone to take them for you) so you know were to put it







now you have this done just place the cover back on don't lift the cover off again or it wont work just do the bolts up evenly using some sort of sequence like top right bottom left bottom right top left tightening gradually
they are only 6mm bolts so don't over tighten them 8 or 10nm will do if you have a torque wrench

to give you some idea it's perfectly posible to snap them with one hand and a 1/4 drive ratchet

make sure you put some coper slip on all the bolts you undo to do this job so that they are easy to undo next time you have to or you may as i say end up with them snapped off in the head

now might be worth giving the engine a clean with a pressure wash or gunk engine cleaner and garden hose so you can make sure it's stopped leaking and just cos it looks nice

then maybe your engine will look a little more like this

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