alright i need to pick the brains of anyone who has done the cam swap using the exhaust cam and housing with .410 lift. heres my delema i just rebuilt my 96 ld9 from the crank up i spun #3 rod bearing but thats fixed i got the whole thing back together. i used the stock ld9 intake housing with the higher lift intake cam and i have the higher lift exhaust cam with the housing for it. i ran it for maybe a half hour and its steadily dripping oil from the cam housing to cylinder head gasket. i used the 96 ld9 gaskets aka the red rubber seal cover gaskets and the composite plate gasket for the bottom. anyone run into this problem after switching cams and the exhaust housing?

Slow down and run a list of what you did for each side...

You used the 2.4 Intake housing with a .410 lift cam?

You used the stock 2.4 gaskets on the intake side?

You used the 2.3 Exhaust housing with 2.4 gaskets?

Which side is leaking?

What did you torque the cam tower bolts to?




Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, March 28, 2010 11:43 AM


"The FACTS are always subject to CHANGE once the TRUTH is applied"
"In the entire history of man the only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked"

john317(AKA Gary the Old guy) wrote:Slow down and run a list of what you did for each side...

You used the 2.4 Intake housing with a .410 lift cam?

You used the stock 2.4 gaskets on the intake side?

You used the 2.3 Exhaust housing with 2.4 gaskets?

Which side is leaking?

What did you torque the cam tower bolts to?

for the intake i used the stock 2.4 housing with the .375 lift cam and the 2.4 gaskets

for the exhaust i used a what seems to be the 2.3 ho housing and the .410 lift cam with the 2.4 gaskets

the exhaust cam housing is leaking

oh and the torque is 11 lbs and 90 degrees just as gm says

Which Exhaust housing did you use? There are 3 different variants. 1st 2 variants had the seal groove in the lower/tower section and it is about 1/2 as deep as the newer style that has the groove in the cover section,like the 2.4's. Not sure rather the composite gasket between the tower and head is the same on the 2.3 vs. 2.4. Might have to take it back apart and use a thin film of silicone on the gasket.





"The FACTS are always subject to CHANGE once the TRUTH is applied"
"In the entire history of man the only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked"

were the gasket between the valve cover and the tower reversed between the two towers... (where one gasket is in the tower and not the valve cover, and the other gasket is in the valve cover and not the tower) -- if so, you have a 2.3 tower... now i assume you are steadally dripping oil out of the valve cover down the tower to the gasket right?

the 2.3 exhaust cam tower has a very hard to find valve cover gasket and the 2.4 one is the exact opposite of. if you used the 2.4 exhaust valve cover gasket, this is why you are leaking oil

edit: after reading the above post... i was unaware of the variants... the two ive came across were like the one i discribed


Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Sunday, March 28, 2010 1:00 PM

this housing has the groove in the bottom cover and yes its .070 deep unlike the newer style groove thats in the upper cover thats .150 deep

i think the leak is being caused by the thicker rubber gasket i used in the shallow grooved housing and because theres an extra .080 being squeezed out the sides of the cover its screwing with the bottom gasket.

thats all i can think of or the covers warped which how the hell would that happen

Sadly,you'll have to take it apart and get the right gaskets to fix it...

(a little silicone on replacing won't hurt either)






"The FACTS are always subject to CHANGE once the TRUTH is applied"
"In the entire history of man the only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked"

when i put it together i used 518 gm's gasket sealer on the lower metal type gasket but im really leaning towards that upper rubber gasket causing the lower leak either ways its coming apart maybe ill straight edge the cam tower and the head and see if its out of spec.

can anyone even contest to a noticeable gain with these cams or am i literally waisting my time.
i mean i dont have a built engine with a turbo or supercharger or anything and with solid mounts, exhaust, intake, and under drive pulleys these cams are just one more gain id like to have

with that exhaust cam, + the 95 LO intake cam, +mounts, header, HO Intake Mani W/ Spacer, & CAI... i was sitting at 171 WHP

i am so happy i just read this, before i installed my "1st design" exhaust tower with ld9 cover gaskets.

did you plug the oil sender port on the 2.3 exhaust tower?



We all need somebody to believe in something...

z yaaaa wrote:did you plug the oil sender port on the 2.3 exhaust tower?

I didnt think of that... this will dump oil out... however i would assume the OP would notice the giant gaping hole

So what you guy are saying is that the head to tower gasket has to be a 2.3 gasket matched to that year and the 2.4 gasket wont work for the exhaust side? I just recently came across some HO's and was going to use 2.3 tower for exhaust and modified 2.4 tower for intake all with brand new 2.4 gaskets. I guess ill have to measure groove in tower underside and compare to gaskets.

Not to change to subject, but since we are on the topic of these cams, does anybody know where i can locate the hex drive that has to be pressed into the HO intake cam. I admit that I haven't yet searched, just figured I would ask.

the exhaust camshaft tower needs a gasket for a olds cutlass supreme with a 2.3 say 1990 if your using the cam with 410 thousandths lift i used the 2.4 gasket and its just causes problems. the 2.4 string type red rubber gasket is about 70 thousandths to big for the smaller groove

side note be very very careful torquing down your camshaft housing covers to the cylinder head i torqued mine just like GM says 11 foot pounds and and extra 90 degrees and they leak i actually went back through and checked the bolts for the cam towers and there on the edge of being stripped some are actually stripped from the stress and heat after running the engine so i now know why it leaks. time to pull the head and either time cert it or heli coil it or in my case use the spare head i have

and i think the hex drive is a machined part of the camshaft but im not 100 percent on that last time i looked at it ... yesterday it looked all one piece