[rl968]

There were very few records for my car when I got it last year. I'm the second owner, but got it through a third party. After replacing timing belt, clutch, etc. Wanted some more piece of mind so I cracked open the valve cover a few weeks back. Surprised to see how good everything looked. Car has 137k miles on it so it almost certainly had to have been serviced. Pads show very little wear, sprockets looked near new and chain was tight and in great shape. Here's a few pics...

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[DaveN]

If you haven't buttoned it up already make sure you check all the cam sprocket teeth, they have been known to go missing.

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[flash]

hard to tell from the looks of the pics - did you measure the depth of the groove? remember too that the lower will be twice as deep as the upper, as it wears more (no idea why)

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[rl968]

There was barely any groove,

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[moses]

Before taking off on a long trip a few weeks ago I also popped off the cover and did an informal inspection of mine (similar mileage). Also pleasantly surprised at seemingly excellent condition of things. The only visible wear on sprocket teeth was a little bit of rounding on the sides of the teeth in the zone a few mm from the tips. Maybe .5mm of wear, hard to say without disassembly and careful measurement. But overall condition of teeth and pads was, I thought, excellent, given informal nature of exam. Just didn't have the time for a proper trip to shop, travel came up suddenly.



In your first photo, right sprocket, tooth at around 11 o'clock, is that just the photo or is the tip not completely good? Probably just the photo or my old eyes!



When re-installing cover is anybody else tempted to glue gasket into the cover with silicone or cyanoacrylate? It would be a hell of a lot easier to get gasket on without pinching if it stayed in the cover when putting cover in place.



Also, anybody have trouble getting the fuel lines disconnected? One of my took all my strength (I'm 6 1/2 feet tall and not all fat) to loosen, very hard not to bend fuel line, and I'm glad I had a flare nut wrench the right size, I would have been scared of an open-end wrench slipping.

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[flash]

i think the tip is blocked in the shot by the pad



i use a dab of orange silicone to hold the gasket in place



always use 2 wrenches on the fuel lines, and orient the wrench in the correct direction (yes there is a correct orientation and a backwards orientation)

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[moses]

>i think the tip is blocked in the shot by the pad

that's it, I should have seen it



>always use 2 wrenches on the fuel lines

duh? Nobody turning those nuts using the fuel rail to hold it in place would be driving very far. But we probably wouldn't get any posts from them what with the car bursting into flames from the gallons of gas gushing from the broken rail. Maybe we should check for members who posted a valve cover or fuel rail question then mysteriously stopped posting ;-)



>orient the wrench in the correct direction

I still like my flare nut wrenches! One of my better purchases, all the grip of a box end (plus) but usable in places like these.



>i use a dab of orange silicone to hold the gasket in place

a dab? in the corners? BTW, I didn't use the recommended gasket gel in those tight spots and haven't seen any seepage yet. And if oil does come out it will definitely be described as "seepage" and not "leakage!"

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[flash]

fuel fittings - you would be amazed at what somebody who doesn't know better would do, hence the warning



flare nut wrenches are great - i have them as well - i just wanted to be sure that people knew there was a right way and a wrong way for open end wrenches



silicone - yeah - just a small amount in the corners, and then i smear a bit where they wanted to use the loctite

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[rl968]

Yep, I used a small amount of sealant in the corners, no leaks. it is just the picture, pad is blocking it. The points on the sprocket were like new. The groove on the pad could be felt with a finger, but it was almost nothing. I saw a 944 that had deep grooves in the pad, so much so that when they were taken out, they cracked.



How long are the pads supposed to last?

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[flash]

depends on a lot of factors - things that will shorten their life are:



not driving it enough - firing it up and not actually driving it - like cars that sit in garages (guilty) - mine were toast at 50k



non-synthetic oil



dirty oil - oil not changed enough



extended high rpms





typically though they should go 100k - they should be inspected by now though, as clearly mileage is not the only factor

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[madridcab]

Just did chain and pads on mine in spite of my mechanic telling me earlier everything looked OK, just that added piece of mind (also attended to some oil seepage, again, totally uneconomical if you consider it perhaps leaking half a litre of oil in a year, but I guess I am not the only one on here doing these kind of things)..

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