cam covers
 

need some ideas on how to cut my cam cover to show the pulleys and belt
can anybody post up some picks please i currently have a full polished one but dont like it

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1332/dsc01679td4.jpg
Shot with DSC-S40 at 2007-12-12

Just eyed it up and run tape where I wanted to cut and used a dremal with cut disc on it. Took like 15min to cut, file edges and paint.

Have you thought about using a Protege valve cover? It will bolt on and leave the timing belt and gears exposed.

You know, naturally aspirated cars don't have enough power to justify the added weight of painting the valve cover. I suggest you cut off even more, then sand it. My car didn't have the power to accelerate my huge nuts, so I turboed it, now it just barely gets by.

Looks nice though.

I'm a loser...what year Protege cover fits?

It was only N/A to drive it home from the shop. I didnt want to do the rest of the work there. And there was a GTX cover in the FS, not sure if it's for sale still.

Any year with a BOHC BP, something like 90-96 sounds right to me.

That fits on the 1.6 right not 1.8 right?

any BP motor cover should fit the 1.8's, i know paul has a protege cover on his 1.8
look up borkap, and try to find his pics of his engine bay, i like how his cover is cut

why do you need to cut it in the first place?

adjuastable cam gears?
mad JDMtyteness?
who knows, there are many reasons...

http://www.miatamx5.com/msmturbo/index.html

theres pics of both of pauls valve covers. the first one (silver) is a miata cover that was cut. the 2nd (black) is the cover he is currently running. please note that is NOT his current turbo setup and it looks a lot better now.

To save weight.

.....and it looks good too.

it'll let things get caught in your timing belt too.

i intend on adjustable cam gears and it looks cool

dunt matter if something were to get caught if the belt breaks it wont bend anything as its a clearence engine :)

I don't have a head lying around to check, but some 'non-interference' DOHC engines might not have valve-piston contact, but may have valve-valve contact. I know that can happen in our '02 WRX.

It will if said something happens to be your fingers...

lol ill keep my fingers clear anyway iv done it now

took me about 20mins ill giv it to the paintshop nxt door to paint tomorrow

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Pretty straight, clean cut. What'd you use to do it?

dude, you dont play around do you? lol
nice cut, i would cut less myself, but thats because my hood is open over that area and that would not work out for me...this is what i want mine to look like

dammit, cant find any pics, but basically only the exhaust side exposed just enough to be able to mess with the gear

take a dump it saves about the same weight.


and those who said cam gears, gtfo. Set them and then you dont need a MaDtYtE cover that expose the belts.

Unless you ever plan to adjust them on the dyno and then having a cover that is cutout makes for easy work. 2 covers is ideal at that point.

I ran an exposed cam gear setup just because ... why not. It isn't a dirty area, I'm competent enough to not drop shit down there... its a non-interference engine... at worse i put a new belt on and am done. I'd prefer to be at the track and see that a belt has snapped... instead of having it as one more thing to diagnose.

Just some of my rational behind open cam gears... this isn't on a street car btw... streetable... but not built/intended for it.

With the GTX valve cover, what are people doing to relocate the hostside PCV? How about coild packs?

The coilpacks can be solved with a small strip of metal, thick metal and 2 holes. The strip goes between the back corner valve cover bolt and the valve cover, it gets pinched, then the coil pack mount there can be bolt upto the strip.

I don't run a PCV system.. I don't believe in them on turbo cars. Both ports goto a catch can (well, will once I get around to working on the car).

Did you close the port at the rear and relocate? Or were you able to route a hose from the rear to your catch can?

With coilpacks it would be interesting, I capped it for the brief time I had the coilpack there. It actually was directly between the 2 coils, not sure how much space to run a hose though.

With COPs on the car, its pseudo tight against firewall for hosing to curve, but doable I think. At worst, I pull out the bung and put in a 45 or something threaded. That's my intent once I get.. unlazy.

here a pick of it on the car just need to fit the new pulleys im waiting for
i have drilled the pipe fitting out of the inlet manifold tapped a thread a fitted a bolt and alloy washer were the pcv valve goes and have tapped a thread in bothe the breather and pcv valve in the rocker cover for a banjo and banjo bolt with nice braided pipes to a catch tank :)

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Nice.. I was going to cut it all the way off but I rememberd that I like to use that top part to hold my tools when working on it. Plus I look at it that when I break the belt it will take less time to change it. I would hate to pay for track time and break a belt and sit out the whole time.

exactly 2 covers.