synthetic oil leaks

[Lord Ed]

In regard to tightening the cam cover bolts, my Australian version 2.0 HPE has two large hex-key heads on each cam cover holding it down. Don't do tighten them too far or (as I did) tighten them when the engine is hot. I cracked the bridge that the cover bolt screws into. Its not all the way through and I'm leaving it for now (only just re-con'd the head). My cam cover bolts are now just a couple tweaks on the tight side of hand-tight and the gaskets are goo-ed on. No leaks there so far..

[Andy]

All sounds very fragile. Oh well... cold engine, dry gaskets and a couple of ginger tweaks seems to be the approved recipe here.
Interesting that synthetic oil, which is hardly a new thing, still prompts such mixed opinions amongst owners of older cars. On that note, I was surprised to see that Penrite - a name most UK drivers would probably associate with "good old-fashioned products" - now sells a fully synthetic 10W/50 oil aimed specifically at more recent classic cars, although I can't see what makes it more classic-friendly than any other brand, except perhaps for its viscosity, which is getting pretty heavy by comparison with today's typical 0W/30 grades.
Thanks for all the advice, anyway.
Best regards,
Andy

[Guy McDougall]

Andy,

I finally checked the workshop manual for you, and there are NO torque figures for nuts holding down the camshaft box covers. As I said before, it's an m5 thread on the inside so finger tight with some blue goo (silicone) should help.

Regards,
Guy.