(16 Valve ONLY) Cylinder Head Oil Feed Tubes (up to MY88): how to
[Additional: I wrote this guide for SC, but it never got much attention and I think it's an item definitely worth mentioning because you really don't want these things to break and be slapping around your valves]
If you have a bunch of tubes running around above your camshafts on a 16 valve engine, you will have little plastic inserts that connect the tubes that feed oil to the cams/followers/lifters. Half way through the '88 model year they switched to feeding from beneath, so if you don't see these:
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Then you won't need to replace anything and won't have a problem to begin with.
Right. These plastic pieces get old and brittle with age and heat. They have little O rings that seal them in place and keep a steady flow of oil to the camshafts, and over time they degrade and need to be replaced. Mine were so brittle and old they broke to pieces in my hand when I pulled them out so be very, very careful when removing them so you don't drop bits of plastic onto your valves! I dropped a few small pieces and luckily after 20k+ miles no harm has come of it, but it's an unnecessary risk you shouldn't take.
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The only tools required for this job is a socket set to get the cam cover off and I'd give about half an hour to an hour ETA if you've never done it before.
If you hear a rhythmic tapping noise and have checked your tensioner and guides, then this is your next step. When these get old, The O rings leak and you wind up with low oil pressure at the head. It's a fairly simple process to replace them.
Get yourself an oiler tube kit. Cheap insurance if you ask me.
First step is to remove the cam cover by removing the spark plug wires and loosening each bolt on the cover. I loosen them one by one, but don't remove them, then go in a zig zag pattern taking them off.
There are three metal oiler tubes, and 11 plastic pieces that connect them together. To get the tubes off pull up on the main feeder very carefully as so not to break it. Wiggling it up as you pull helps.
Main feeder located on the timing chain side in between the two cam sprockets as shown here.
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Don't pull it up all the way, but proceed to wiggle each of the other plastic inserts out.
Once you have them all out and have not broken any, remove them all one by one from the tubes. Once they're all off the fun begins.
The tubes are directional and must be placed back in the order they came out. All of the holes on the tubes must line up with the holes on the plastic inserts. With that in mind, the easiest way I found to do this was to put the main feeder insert on along with that tubes end caps first. The way to line them up is to slide the main on, line it up the best you can by looking down the hole, put it into the head so that it sticks, but it isn't fully in, then attach the other two end caps.
There is a notch at one end of the tube this can be used as your directional guide. If that notch is facing down and the end cap slides on, then your main feeder and other end cap will be in line as well.
Once you've got these guys on, don't push them fully into the head, but enough so that they can rest in place without moving. Your other two oil tubes have notches in them as well, and the notches must face away from the firewall in order for everything to line up. Slide the middle inserts on as well and line them up best you can, and same as above, if those end notches are facing down, then all of your subsequent holes will line up.
Connect all feeder tubes. Push in so that they snick in and don't wiggle around.
Bentley covers bleeding the system on page 214-3. I have not done this but I'm sure it would be wise to do so after this procedure.
Refit cam cover and tighten bolts in order shown below.
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Photo credit: Dimitry Platonoff.
Hope this helps. After I did this my car stopped missing and stumbling, my idle evened out and it now returns to idle without the revs dropping below 300 rpm.
