cam housing & cam housing "O" rings

[tonycharente]

Hello all,
Two questions for the price of one !!!

I'm doing the valve clearances on my 1989 Excel SE, and have removed the inlet Cam Housing - so far so good...

The housing is held on by 16 torx bolts (for which, by the way, you need to buy a 3/8" drive E10 size female Torx socket) and two studs. To remove the housing you have to lift it clear of the studs. Looking at the exhaust Cam Housing, it looks as if there is VERY little room between the housing and the bodywork. Q1: Is there indeed ENOUGH room as is, or do you have to disconect the enging mounting and jack the engine up / over?

The parts manual (page 40.02A) shows there to be an "O" ring between each Cam Housing and the head (item 20, part no. A907E6202Z). I could find no such "O" ring on mine. Q2: Should this "O" ring in fact be there?

Many thanks to all,
Tony

[chrisw2811]

Hi Tony, When I replaced my head gasket I re-shimmed the valves.
I found it difficult to release the exhaust camshaft housing even with the exhaust downpipe disconnected, the engine mount released and that side of the engine jacked up. There was not much clearance to access the torx bolts near the bulkhead, and you also need a bit of room when you are putting the camshaft housing back in to make sure that the cam positions are about right and that you get a good seal with the Loctite 504.
Mine is an early (85/86) SE and it has the O ring on the dowel that you describe. According to the manual, every engine after number 11276 should have the O ring. Good luck. Chris

[tonycharente]

Thanks to you both. In fact mine did have the "O" rings - it's just that they were so hard I took them to be metal bits.... I managed to remove the exhaust cam housing without moving the engine, but it is certainly very tight (as in cam pulley scraping inner wing) and I think I'll jack up the engine a bit to reinstall it.
Thanks again,
Tony