EA888 Cam Cover Resealing

[VeeFource]

I'm looking to fix the small oil leak at the back of the cam cover on an Audi S1 so just researching the best approach to the job. It seems most don't bother touch the timing gear before removing the cam cover but this leads me to wonder whether the engine should at least be put to TDC to minimise any cam lobes acting on valves? Can't see any mention of this anywhere so hopefully PH to the rescue

[catso]

Can't see why it would matter what position the engine is whilst doing the job since it's just the cover, you can't have all cylinders at TDC at the same time anyway.

[Dr G]

Check/confirm the exact engine version; on gen 3 the "cam cover" is also the cam bridge and requires timing covers off and camshafts locked prior to removal.

[VeeFource]

It is the gen 3 so yeah the cam cover is structural. There are numerous guides that say it can simply be removed and all will stay well with the timing provided the camshafts etc are not significantly interfered with whilst it's off. Guides like this (some are on YouTube) for example: https://www.thedrive.com/news/resealing-the-camsha...

The thing I'd have thought would be important is at what stage of rotation is the engine at when the cam cover is removed? Can't see any mention of this but surely you'd want all the cam lobes in their least engaged state?

[Dr G]

Didn't/wouldn't risk it with mine when the bridge was leaking into one of the plug wells. It's a few hours labour but I'd rather that than ignore the torque sequence and cause a bigger problem.

[Techno9000]

VeeFource said:

... surely you'd want all the cam lobes in their least engaged state?

I don't think they'll be a position where this is happening; consider exhaust valves open during exhaust stroke, possible overlap between inlet and outlet cams around the end of exhaust stroke and start of inlet stroke, inlet valves open through inlet stroke, so that leaves the compression and ignition strokes for that cylinder where the valves are closed, but then there are the other three cylinders to consider...
In an four cylinder engine, two cylinders will be on their exhaust / inlet strokes (with valvetrain under pressure) whilst the other two are on their compression / ignition strokes.

[VeeFource]

Techno9000 said:

I don't think they'll be a position where this is happening; consider exhaust valves open during exhaust stroke, possible overlap between inlet and outlet cams around the end of exhaust stroke and start of inlet stroke, inlet valves open through inlet stroke, so that leaves the compression and ignition strokes for that cylinder where the valves are closed, but then there are the other three cylinders to consider...
In an four cylinder engine, two cylinders will be on their exhaust / inlet strokes (with valvetrain under pressure) whilst the other two are on their compression / ignition strokes.

Yeah it's just I would have thought you'd still want to aim for the least lobe engagement as possible. Especially when it's pretty easy to put the engine in the right position so surprised I've not seen about this anywhere