aptoslexus

I happened to be in Harbor Freight today and picked up their rubber grommet kit. One of the sizes fits pretty closely over the metal sleeve. It doesn't have the overhang that fits into the slot at the bolt hole, but you might be able to frankenstein something together using these grommets. I installed one where mine was split. Not a perfect fix, but it helped.

cj98ls

Not knowing much about grommets I did a google search and found this quick video on sizing of holes for grommets. Might be useful.

TominPT

The grommets might also prevent a metal-on-metal rattle due to vibration. They should all be there to prevent that, I would think.

cj98ls

A buddy of mine who I had asked about 3d printing grommets asked me if I'd heard of these guys.
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/gr...terial~rubber/
We may well find suitable grommets already commercially available.

400fanboy

I've been unable to find where the metal cylinder I found goes. I honestly just gave up looking. Maybe the next time I take the intake off I'll have a closer look.

Also following up on the oil cap blow-by. I don't think the o-ring has failed. After making this thread, I cleaned the area with SD-20. I didn't get the crevices, but I wanted to see if there was continued blowby. As we can tell from the picture I took today, after 1000 miles... there is not. It's as clean as the day I did it. I suspect either A) some smooth brained idiot didn't tighten the oil cap correctly at some point during the cars life. Or B) some smooth brained idiot doesn't know how to use a funnel and spilled oil all over the heads. If the oil cap had been allowing blowby, we would have seen accumulation by now.

The only *remote* possibility that remains is that the o-ring may be fine when it's warm, but in the winter in cold weather, it contracts and fails (Space Shuttle Challenger anyone? RIP). We'll see in 6 months.

paulo57509

Don't worry about that metal spacer thingy. After I did my timing belt and cam seals I ended up with a baggie of 8-10 fasteners left over. Later, when I went to replace the starter, I went back to look for any threaded holes that were missing bolts and found none. It's been about 600 miles since the timing belt job and nothing has fallen off yet. I just tossed the baggie in my Lexus parts box should I happen to need them in the future.

Your oil seepage/leak - I'm going to guess it's a combination of the funnel thing and pouring the oil in too quickly (ask me how I know this). Remove the fill cap and look into the hole. Half way down the hole is 1/2 obstructed by the cover casting. Make sure to ratchet the cap 3-4 clicks when tightening it. I would replace the cap gasket just because.

The front cam cover on my old '87 Legend was always kinda damp with oil around the gasket. I've replaced the cover gaskets more than a few times in the last 20 years. Before I got the car the cover gasket were replaced at least three times (IIRC). I always figured that oil was seeping between the front cam bearing cap and the cylinder head and needed to have the Hondabond (FIPG) redone. Last time I was checking fluids, it was "noticeably" more wet than normal. Then it hit....maybe it's coming from the oil fill cap.

I removed the cap and looked at it closely and there it was. Someone had put an o-ring on top of the existing rectangular x-section o-ring. I never noticed this before. You know what happens when you remove an oil filter and the old filter gasket gets left behind and then you install the new filter over it? Fortunately, Honda still services the fill cap gasket for a 36 year old car. The old cap gasket was rock hard.

cj98ls

400fanboy -
There's an image you shot in post 29 that shows the rubber grommet under a bolt head. Is there a metal spacer underneath the bolt and through the grommet? There should be. That may be where the mystery spacer goes.