I'm going to be drilling out my old seals in the valve covers tonight with a 1 7/8" holesaw and installing new seals with RTV. Pretty much following the R&D DIY as its straight forward.

I already bought a rod of UHMW and turned it on the lathe down to the precise dimensions to replicate the alignment tool. I bought the fel-pro spark plug tube set ES-72481. I went to make sure the seals would fit nicely over the spark plug tubes when I found a fitment issue with the seals and the hardware on the camshaft head. As you can see when first sliding the seals over the tubes they fit very nicely.

However I'm having my concerns over the bolt and bracket assembly just below the seals on the camshaft. As you can see in the following picture when the seals are pressed all the way down to actually cover the surface where the oil leaks, the seal has to deform just to make it past this area.


I'm aware that the outer ring will be flush with the valve cover, but I still don't see how it will be able to clear that bolt and bracket holding the camshaft in place. Please, someone tell me im over thinking this... I only have tonight to work on the valve covers.

Here's a picture of the seal next to the original seals for reference.


Thanks in advance G family!

 

I didn't think the seal went down that low on the spark plug tube? Doesn't it sit on the spark plug tube near the top where it is grey in color instead of the tan brown color seen on the rest of the tube? (you can see it on the tube in the upper right of the first two photos)?