Obi-Wan-YJ
Junior Member
Tonight, we pulled the valve covers on our 2007 GT to (A) replace leaking gaskets, (B) identify the camshafts, and (C) fix the P0345+P0349 codes that indicate a flaky driver side cam position sensor.
(A) Pulling the valve cover gaskets is straightforward, but how do I replace the bolt gaskets? None of the youtube videos show that.
(B) I can tell by how the cam lobes are machined from the same stock as the camshaft that we do not have a factory cam. I could not find any identifying marks that could verify that it was a Mutha Thumpr. Pics attached.
(C) Turns out that one of the arms on the driver side cam phaser reluctor / tone ring plate was bent inward, probably due to a careless install of the cam by a previous owner. I'm sure that's what was causing the cam position sensor to miss a beat. I grabbed my pliers and bent the arm straight, then verified with feeler gauges that it had the same spacing as the other arms. While tweaking the spacing, the entire reluctor plate popped right off the front of the cam phaser!
That plate (pn G6046VT) is only held onto its backing plate by four little detent bumps that are press fit into four holes in the even thinner plate behind it. I tried to push it back into those holes, but it has no grip and just falls right back off. Is there ANY way that I can securely reattach this reluctor to the plate behind it without having to replace the entire phaser? Somebody suggested tack welding it back on, but I'm a little worried about throwing the plate out of balance, and I only have a stick welder (not MIG), which creates a very rough weld that burns clear through thin metal. Is this plate originally attached by some method that's more sure than just a press fit into holes? The passenger side phaser seems to be just fine.
Because of the big cam, I'm told that this engine has "Freedom Racing locked phasers." I'm not sure what the visual or functional difference is between those & the stock phasers, except that they limit the amount of phasing by some amount. Will that affect my ability to buy a replacement phaser, if that's even actually necessary?
When I pulled the spark plugs to facilitate rotating the engine, I found that the driver side plugs (same side as the bent tone arm) were in CONSIDERABLY worse shape than the passenger side. The points were almost completely gone. I'm guessing that's related to the ECU being confused about the cam position on that side.
(A) Pulling the valve cover gaskets is straightforward, but how do I replace the bolt gaskets? None of the youtube videos show that.
(B) I can tell by how the cam lobes are machined from the same stock as the camshaft that we do not have a factory cam. I could not find any identifying marks that could verify that it was a Mutha Thumpr. Pics attached.
(C) Turns out that one of the arms on the driver side cam phaser reluctor / tone ring plate was bent inward, probably due to a careless install of the cam by a previous owner. I'm sure that's what was causing the cam position sensor to miss a beat. I grabbed my pliers and bent the arm straight, then verified with feeler gauges that it had the same spacing as the other arms. While tweaking the spacing, the entire reluctor plate popped right off the front of the cam phaser!
That plate (pn G6046VT) is only held onto its backing plate by four little detent bumps that are press fit into four holes in the even thinner plate behind it. I tried to push it back into those holes, but it has no grip and just falls right back off. Is there ANY way that I can securely reattach this reluctor to the plate behind it without having to replace the entire phaser? Somebody suggested tack welding it back on, but I'm a little worried about throwing the plate out of balance, and I only have a stick welder (not MIG), which creates a very rough weld that burns clear through thin metal. Is this plate originally attached by some method that's more sure than just a press fit into holes? The passenger side phaser seems to be just fine.
Because of the big cam, I'm told that this engine has "Freedom Racing locked phasers." I'm not sure what the visual or functional difference is between those & the stock phasers, except that they limit the amount of phasing by some amount. Will that affect my ability to buy a replacement phaser, if that's even actually necessary?
When I pulled the spark plugs to facilitate rotating the engine, I found that the driver side plugs (same side as the bent tone arm) were in CONSIDERABLY worse shape than the passenger side. The points were almost completely gone. I'm guessing that's related to the ECU being confused about the cam position on that side.
