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Just made a major f&#k up. In trying to get the spark plug tubes out with all the usual methods with no luck, I had to resort to a screwdriver and pliers. In the process I have dropped one of the large o rings inside the camshaft cover. Can anyone suggest a method of retrieval without stripping everything down. If I do need to remove the cover, is it a massive job and are there any tricks.
Thanks in advance
Walshie

Get one of those $10 USB boroscope cameras. Stick in in the far spark plug tube hole to look inside the cam cover and locate the o-ring while snagging it with a wire bent into a hook at the end.
You'll be able to spot it and see what you're doing with the camera.

Go to home depot and get several feet of plastic hose with an outside diameter that fits with plenty of clearance into the spark plug tube hole. Attach that with duct tape to your shop vac hose and have at it.

Brilliant, I am going to try both the camera and hook and the tube and vac methods. I have a boroscope camera for my phone so will try that first. Thanks guys.

It is a MASSIVE job. You have to lower the engine enough to get access to the top rearmost screw. Even with the engine lowered it is a difficult fit back there. To get it low enough, you have to remove the crossmember that runs under the engine and trans, the diagonal braces and the trans pan, all the coolant hoses at the front of the engine. You have to remove the rear set of cat/pipes, good idea to remove the exhaust manifold on that side (that's a trick for getting the cam cover off and back on--enough clearance,) you need to unbolt all the cam cover bolts, the bolts on the oil pump on that side.

IMPORTANT!!!! Before you pull the cam cover, BE SURE to install a cam holding tool! Otherwise your cam may fall out and make cam timing all fubar. You can find pictures of the tool online or even on this forum or Rennlist. They are expensive! But a workable one you can make with a bit of steel and a shop grinder and a cutoff tool.

Also VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Be very conservative with the sealant putting it back together. If you clog up the passageways on the cam cover near where the cam plugs, the oil from the cams won't drain and the cam plugs will pop out the first time you start the engine. I did this, I'm in the middle of reinstalling the cam cover after pulling it back off and cleaning up the dried silicon goop. No more than 1/10" bead of goop!

I've left a lot of the basic stuff out like having the car on jackstands 2' off the ground, you'll need to remove the coils, don't worry about the tubes, they'll come out with the cover and you can remove them then. You'll need to disconnect the O2 sensor wire and unbolt the holder from the cam cover. You don't need to drain the oil, but there will be oil inside cam cover, so have something to catch it with and rags, lot of rags. Spilled oil cleans up well with brake cleaner, and you can use it to clean the spilled oil off the engine. Use a straight single edge razor blade to carefully remove old sealer.

I hope you can get the o-ring out without pulling the cam cover. It ain't a job for the faint of heart or the impatient.

Oh and if your engine cam cover is held on by those infernal reverse torx fasteners, you and get them out using an 8mm socket!:cheers:

Cam cover bolt torques are 10 ft lb or 120 in. lb. And courtesy of our good friends,Pelican, here's the torque order:

https://s13.postimg.org/a2uw9eutf/valve_cover.jpg

I have everything crossed to get it out. Thank you for your reply. I will post the results.

OK, so I put an endoscopic camera through the tube holes and couldn't see any stray on ring. I connected a hose pipe to the vac and a smaller hose to the hose pipe. I did remove some very small fragments of plastic but no one ring. I swept the floor and sieved the dust and found about a third of the o ring. After researching the other forums I found a thread where a Porsche mechanic stated that small fragments of plastic would not do any harm in the bottom of the casing so I decided to put all back together again. At the moment she is running lovely. I have taken her out for a decent run.
I k ow that everyone will condemn me for taking the risk but it is done now.