The B2200 has a substantial oil leak we think is coming from the upper front of the engine. It's not the valve cover.

It might be the front cam bearing cap that is leaking. That one where you have to put a little sealer on it just right to make it seal up. When I go to redo this, what advice do you have to be successful? We'll probably swap out the timing belt too since it wont be too long before its due. We will pull the front housing and replace that gasket too and also the cam seal.

What else could be leaking up there? Any advice on making the job successful is appreciated

 

Could be camshaft seal like you said, same part number as the crankshaft seal.

On mine, I substituted a metric allen bolt so in the future I could remove through one of the holes in the camshaft pulley, instead of this.

 

Yeah The allen bolt sounds like a good idea.

I actually had this thing sealed up good when I first rebuilt the engine. However, the rocker arms were tapping a bit. I had reused the ones that were originally on the engine but put new lifters in them. I then went back in with replacement rockers that came with new lifters in them. Crazy thing is, the valve tapping got worse. Went back in again and found that the tiny orings on those replacement lifters were all messed up like they had been mishandled when they were installed into the rockers. Not by me because they came already assembled. So, I removed all of those lifters and put in the new lifters that I had originally bought, making sure to not damage the orings. This pretty much solved the tapping but that is when the leaking started.

When I went in on these other occasions, I didn't follow the repair manual fully as it said to remove the entire front housing cover before removing the rocker shaft. I just loosened the bolts and tilted the housing cover forward to make clearance to lift the rocker shaft out and put it back in. I'm thinking those corner cutting things I did may have lead to the leaking.

What do you think?

 

Yep. Re-seal the front & rear camshaft caps, per the manual, and you'll be leak free again.

 

What type of sealer does the manual call for on the machined surface between the forward cam bearing cap and cylinder head?

 

The Ultra Grey silicone.......at least that is what is similar to the original silicone that was used.......make sure all of the oily residue is cleaned from the mating surfaces, prior to applying the Ultra Grey.