Camshaft seal problem + solution?

[A80Avant]

Hi,
ever since the engine rebuild and 2 seals later, my camshaft seal is very gently still weeping oil, to the point that has half my oil pan wet now. Its barely noticable and its not coming from the rocker cover gasket which has been sealed with silicone and its dry all around.

I was wondering if anyone has a permanent solution for this.

1)We toyed with the idea with Brian to actually block the little hole in the picture below, use silicone on the edges where there is a small gap between the 2 metal pieces, and leave it without a camshaft seal all together.

That bottom hole there i believe is to allow the seal to lubricate??

Other less radical solutions:

2) use silicone on the metal faces, and the round tip of the seal and mount the seal on a different plane so that it doesnt stay on the part of the camshaft that my have a worn surface thus allowing the oil to pass through.
If there is a small groove on the camshaft where the seal usually sits, how can we level that surface out? Do we need to gently use some sandpaper on it?

Anyone else has any idea? We are going to dismantle this for the last time, and we are quite fed up!

[Pirvu Eugen]

That hole is to allow the oil to go back into sump. Dont block that. Insteed...remove the caps from the exhaust cam a little...just to allow you to fit the seal onto the cam...then put some silicone on the last cap outside contact surface.( not the entire cap) then put a little onto the seal also and tight the caps taking car at the last one with the seal to be straight into the hole.
Goodluck!

[A80Avant]

So the bottom hole is a return line?
Maybe that is blocked a bit...

sent using Android

[Pirvu Eugen]

Maibe....but dont neglect to put some good silicone onto contact surface off the oil seal and cap....between the cap and head...oil can pass.
Is the groove in the cam soo deap?

[A80Avant]

When Brian looked, it was ok

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[Pirvu Eugen]

Dont press the seal into place with the cap tight....fit the seal together with the cam.

[Pirvu Eugen]

Then...will be fine if you put the seal in maximum inner position.

[A80Avant]

So we should take the cam out in order to fit it properly?

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[Pirvu Eugen]

Just a little....fit the seal onto camshaftput some silicone on the seal surface and to the outer edges of the cap....then tight the caps...
Success!

[A80Avant]

last time we fitted it, we used silicone on the outer rim of the seal and pushed the seal in all the way.

we did not use any siliocone on the edges of the metal parts behind the seal, so we will do that this time.

if we take the cap off completely, dry it, put silicone on the surfaces, then put the seal in, and then the cap back on, would that work better?

[Pirvu Eugen]

Yes...you will press the rubber against the cap surface in place of pushing the seal into...is a much better solution. I have fitted some seals like this...and none lost oil.

[Costash]

I changed mine with the old one couse was leaking and I took the old one and fit the new one but didn t push it to much inside just make it flash with exterior.This was how it worked for me.Something it is wrong, if the new seal is not doing the job.Good luck with it.

[A80Avant]

the amount of oil leak i get from there is minimal and not related to the boost, so i dont think this is a PCV system problem that allows oil to whip out during high boost, as it still whips under normal driving. Also my rocker cover gasket is dry all around, so i would think if there was something seriously wrong, it would have shown itself. I think we just didnt expect the 2nd seal not to work with a bit of silicone, as the first one didnt have any at all.

Now that we will use more silicone on all areas that could potentialy be a problem, i think it should be fine!

[Costash]

I bought mine from quattro corner, were did you bought yours and what make?

[A80Avant]

initial one was a kit victor reinz from quattro corner, and the second one was from audi themselves.

now i got a ASW one, but to be honest they all look the same. Seems as though there is something wrong (as we said above) rather than this being a seal problem