Help with cam bearing cap

[606autos]

Hi all, A friend has broke No5 cam bearing cap now I know you should replace the full cam and all the caps but this car has been stood for 3 years and we are not sure what is wrong with it so before he forks out £230 for a kit we would like to try a used one.
Please if anyone can help, its for a "Y" Reg 1800 Gti
Cheers Andy

[Wayne]

Best bet is to fit one and then do a dry test with engineers blue that will soon show up any tight spots.

[danny_p]

need ether multi 2nd hand caps,  or some wet and dry and just test and adjust till it fits.
cam caps arn't under much stress so as long as it's not tight it'll be ok.

once youve gog it running just don't go revving the nuts off it straight away give it about 15 mins to settel

[Sam]

As danny says try sort it yourself, they are under no where near as much stress as bottom end bearings (kinda the same thing). Dont worry too much if you f**k it up either as you can take it to most engineering machine shops and they will be able to sort you out with a single new bearing to the correct tolerances.

[DOA]

As danny says try sort it yourself, they are under no where near as much stress as bottom end bearings (kinda the same thing). Dont worry too much if you f**k it up either as you can take it to most engineering machine shops and they will be able to sort you out with a single new bearing to the correct tolerances.

Hmm, you do realise cams run direct in the cap/head dont you? They dont actually have seperate bearings hence the worry about fitting either a new cap or a used one as the wear to the cam and caps in the existing head wont match up...... Not that it'll cause any major problems, its not much different to fitting a new uprated cam, as danny says, the new item will bed in in quick time (or lunch itself  ).

[Sam]

As danny says try sort it yourself, they are under no where near as much stress as bottom end bearings (kinda the same thing). Dont worry too much if you f**k it up either as you can take it to most engineering machine shops and they will be able to sort you out with a single new bearing to the correct tolerances.

Hmm, you do realise cams run direct in the cap/head dont you? They dont actually have seperate bearings hence the worry about fitting either a new cap or a used one as the wear to the cam and caps in the existing head wont match up...... Not that it'll cause any major problems, its not much different to fitting a new uprated cam, as danny says, the new item will bed in in quick time (or lunch itself  ).

They have a separate semicircular piece of metal dividing the cam and the head/caps aka a bearing I am well aware of this but surely most of the force is applied to the top half of the bearing rather than the bottom andhow, so risk of damaging the head must be minimal.

[danny_p]

sadly not quite on the older vw heads.

the bearing the cam runs in is a coating on the actual cylinder head and bearing cap itself so in theory if ut wear out or you brake a cap youve got to throw the whole head

in practice there is very littel force on them  infact if  one of bearings 2,3,4  are a problem you can just mill off the bottom half and block the oil way,   end ones do need to  be there you can usally find a cap that's close enough

if not and the head was a spectial one with ££££ of port work done  it's still saveable but it  costs.  you tunnel bore the head trough all the caps and then fit shells  job done

[Sam]

sadly not quite on the older vw heads.

the bearing the cam runs in is a coating on the actual cylinder head and bearing cap itself so in theory if ut wear out or you brake a cap youve got to throw the whole head

in practice there is very littel force on them  infact if  one of bearings 2,3,4  are a problem you can just mill off the bottom half and block the oil way,   end ones do need to  be there you can usally find a cap that's close enough

if not and the head was a spectial one with ££££ of port work done  it's still saveable but it  costs.  you tunnel bore the head trough all the caps and then fit shells  job done

Would it not be possible to adapt it to take custom bearings?

[DOA]

you tunnel bore the head trough all the caps and then fit shells  job done

Would it not be possible to adapt it to take custom bearings?

Lol, thats what he said at the end , even if ive never heard it called tunnel boring before lol .

the bearing the cam runs in is a coating on the actual cylinder head and bearing cap itself so in theory if ut wear out or you brake a cap youve got to throw the whole head

Care to elaborate on this mystical coating btw Danny? Ali is an excellent bearing material and Ive never heard of it being coated before to accept cams. We certainly dont do it on the 50 odd thousand engines we build at work per year but am more than willing to be educated lol. I suppose they might be doing this in some places now to get round american service intervals nowadays but not convinced and would suggest any coatings are on the cams themselves.