Extending the life of our porsche 944 turbo by fixing some annoying oil leaks 1987 944 turbo camshaft housing oil leak asked on fri 03/21/2003 engine vehicle information Oil leaks on the exhaust manifold from the valve cover area was a real learning experience for me on my 1983 944 I spent a whole bunch of time trying to get this to seal before finally going to my local independent porsche mechanic/racer He diagnosed it as a warped cam tower, and fortunately had a used replacement handy. Yep that's the cam tower, it has a total of 5 seals including the gasket between it and the head
The one that really leaks a lot is a tiny donut seal behind the cam pulley, that will spill oil on the front of the header and down the front of the engine. I'm not sure why but, porsche used a cork gasket on the rear cam housing cover They are notorious for leaking and usually start giving problems shortly after the car has 50,000 miles on it. Seem to have a slight oil leak at rear of cam cover, oil seeping over engine numbers and dripping onto exhaust manifold, causing 'puff's of smoke, and black smoke from manifold while on initial warming up. Could be cam tower gasket, but i can't see any oil in the photo If you have a lot of oil and its unclear where its starting, you can get uv oil dye that you out in your engine, and then use a black light to show where the dye is leaking out of.
When you replace the main gasket between the housing and the head, also replace the seals at the front end of the camshaft.
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