Ok, so I have a situation. My engine is at my friends house, and I recently found out that the cam caps are missing and that they are head specific. Luckilly, after searching this site, I found that I can get other ones, but have to have them line bored. I read that this alone can cost around $300 (cant get a new head, too much invested in the port work, etc).

Has anyone ever done this before? How much did you pay? Does your motor still run?

Also, I assume the head has to go in the shop as well, is there any reason that you cannot use the same head bolts more than once? I have the AEBS head studs, and was just wondering if they were re-usable. What about the head gasket? I just put them all on a few days ago and found the cam caps missing, so it has to come apart again.

 

Ok, so through research I found out that the head studs are reusable, however I am still in the dark about the headgasket.

All the searches come up with the same things, people wanting to reuse their headgasket after xxxx amount of miles, and of course it is a bad idea. But what about in my situation, where I torqued the head down, and then that was it, it just sat for weeks, and then I took the head off, could I reuse the gasket then?

 

i have like 3 or 4 sets of b16 cam caps. i only need 2 of them. what kind of head do you have and where are you located?

i'm no expert, but once a headgasket is torqued down, my understanding is that it is compressed, and therefore may not seal the same if used a second time. so you can try it - but do you want to pay an extra ~$70 for another gasket now and do the labor while the head is off? or put it back together and then possibly find a leak and still have to get a new gasket AND do the labor again...i'm sure someone on this board can confirm or deny this.

 

i'd flip my house up-side down twice for those caps. you're caught in between a rock and a hard place my friend. did you look for them yourself or did your friend just say "oh i looked i dont have them"

search around this topic has been covered before. good luck

 

I have searched around, thats why I am asking how much other people have paid to have this done. Most of the posts in the search were just people saying that is what you need to do (line boring), but not too many were from people in my situation that actually had to get the caps and head line bored.

Also, same goes with the headgasket question, it has not been asked the same way I am asking, it is always people asking to use it after it has been ran for several thousand miles.

 

ive gotten my gsr head line honed for $100 to match up different caps..its been 2 months now and no problems....yet

 

just get it lined bored and you'll be fine

 

Ok cool, I feel better knowing there are others out there that have done the same thing. Hopefully my friend will find them though, he is gonna tear apart the garage tomorrow.

 

i had my head line bored by heads up near seattle. turned out great!

 

my gsr head is with Dave @ headgames (HEAD on h-t)in NJ he is align honing my cam caps.


Modified by B18 CYA at 11:15 PM 4/3/2006