Pushrod tube seal replacement, You guys help me out Options

[bd1308]

I pay over $600 at the "Porsche" place to get them replaced...perfect. I take them to the VW guy to get them replaced, $20 labor and parts and nada....i know the guy is cheap, this is why "I"want to do them myself. Somebody PLEASE tell me how to clean the ports up (where the seals go) cause the VW guy says that's what is needed and he can't do them real well.

[ThinAir]

Mike is right that you can do this with the engine in the car, but it is far easier if you can drop the engine because of the tight space between the frame and the heads.

For sure you want to use the carwash pressure washer so you can see a little better just where the oil is coming from. Although pushrod tube seals can go start to leak, it is far more likely that your leak is coming from the valve covers or the oil pressure sender. Cleaning up the engine so you can watch for leaks as it is running will give you a good idea if it is really the PR tube seals. PR tube seals tend to leak mostly if they are very old (and brittle) or if they were cut during the installation. Valve covers leak more often and are easily fixed with a new set of gaskets and perhaps bending the bale slightly to get a tighter fit.

For the oil pressure sender, check the top of the engine, near the distributor. A leak from the sender will travel down the engine and drip off of the bottom of the oil filter (and get blown around onto the HEs). If there is oil on top of the sender or on top of the engine near it then the sender is likely leaking. The sender is easy to replace (and cheap), but you need to treat the new sender to a coating of silicone where the plastic top meets the metal casing. This is because new senders tend to leak there and this helps prevent the leak from getting started. Also, do not use any treatment on the threads (like teflon tape). The threads are tapered and never leak unless the sender is just loose.