The rushed cambelt cover colour code as well! :eek: Glad I bought two extra cans of paint now.

After looking at a pic of my engine bay I suddenly realised it was a little pointless colour coding the cam cover if it's butting up to an ugly looking cambelt cover. So, out with my flat screwdriver, undid the clip holding my intercooler hose to the race pipe. Undid the cambelt cover from both ends, cleaned it, de-greased it. Whipped the sticker off (first) and have given it a coat of primer. All being well, it will be painted and lacquered by nightfall!

Car is currently outside with my boost pipework sticking out of it.

Proof.

Priming is well underway. Third coat now. Not sure it's going to be as smooth as there's some scratch marks, but it will be much better once painted.

On the first picture, Jason, has your car been sick? And did it has carrots in it?

Nope - Not been sick to my knowledge, but I see what you mean.

2nd coat of silver is already on. pics to follow when I go for the third coat.

Trouble is I've had 4 cans of carlsberg, and I don't think the cam cover swap is going to happen tonight. I'll have to leave it to the morning, and make sure I don't forget and drive somewhere with the boost pipe still disconnected.

Well, light is failing as the pictures show, but progress is swift. Now have 3 coats of paint, and 1 lacquer. First pic is after 2 coats, 2nd pic after 3 coats and 1 lacquer.

OK - more lacquer applied to both the cambelt cover and the cam cover this morning. Nice warm sunshine beating down to help dry it quickly.

But my engine is still out of action until it all gets fitted.

But my, what a nice clean air intake. Filthy EGR system. :grumpy:

Before and after (in advance )

6 replies to your own thread and only 7 posts, must be a record, no wonder your post count is so high :P

The alternator will buff up easily too

Great - now my car's off the road for a couple of days....

For some reason every single cam cover bolt decided to snap off when removing the current cover. The cover was only off about 10k ago to have the special camshaft fitted, so they must have used loctite or something. The bolts snapped so easily that I'm hoping they're softer than the head, so drilling out won't be too tricky.

What an absolute sod though, and so close to TRAX. Need to borrow a car for work tomorrow too.

Ouch that's bad luck :(

I actually got a good 1/2 turn out of them on the ratchet before they went, so that does seem to indicate they're very soft bolts.... Fingers crossed.... Car's going on a trailer to my mate's garage tomorrow and they're gonna get some special drill bits to attack it.

And you know why we charge what we do now dont you...lol.

when they took the cam cover off before did they have the inlet manifold off too???

With mine the only way of getting the cam cover off was to take the inlet manifold off as the bolt tab on the manifold is just too big to let the cover past

damm vag and there forward planning

when they took the cam cover off before did they have the inlet manifold off too???

With mine the only way of getting the cam cover off was to take the inlet manifold off as the bolt tab on the manifold is just too big to let the cover past

damm vag and there forward planning

Removing the original (post bolt snapping and about 10 seconds before I realised and startec cussing!) was a little tricky due to the inlet manifold, and I was thinking that I don't want to have the reverse issue and scrape my lovely new paintwork fitting the silver cover. I shall most likely cover up the silver cover when refitting it so it can squeeze past the inlet manifold, and remain undamaged.