Oil leak solved - Raceseng billet aluminum cam plate
 

Like a number of other manual transmission owners on this forum, I quickly realized that I had a situation with oil leaking from my passenger side rear cam plate cover. The repeatable symptom was that when pushing the car hard above 4k rpm, drops of oil would be forced out from the faulty factory seal of the rear cam plate and land directly on the hot overpipe. This resulted in a foul odor and is definitely not something that should be happening to a brand new 2013 model year car.

While this doesn't affect all manual transmission twins, it's prominent and annoying enough to spark a number of owners to visit the dealership for a warranty fix. I followed the experiences of others who took their cars in in this thread. What I observed was that there seemed to be a hit or miss result in regards to both the dealer applied fix and individual fixes that owners were performing and documenting. I followed the thread for weeks waiting for a TSB and debating attempting my own fix.

I saw a post from @Raceseng asking if there would potentially be any interest in an aftermarket solution to this problem. This is exactly what I had been waiting for, so I excitedly replied that yes I would be very interested indeed! I was even more excited when I got a PM a few weeks later asking if I would like to be a prototype tester for the part! :D A few days later, I got this in the mail:

http://imageshack.us/a/img9/346/qmrx.jpg

From start to end my experience with Raceseng has been great. These are consummate professionals, folks! I'm happy to have been able to fine tune some of the installation instructions and provide real world feedback on their cam plate's functionality.

The Install:

Comparison of the stock plate on the left and the Raceseng on the right.
http://imageshack.us/a/img839/5836/a09c.jpg

Looking closer, you can see the one of the faults of the factory silicone gasket material, the small seam in the gasket caused by the two pieces of the aluminum engine block meeting.
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/6820/l2ua.jpg


Here is the view immediately after taking the stock plate cover off. Notice the seam created where the two sections meet.
http://imageshack.us/a/img43/5893/o2xk.jpg


Install finished!
http://imageshack.us/a/img706/7859/2tr5.jpg

Overall a really simple install, one of the keys was making sure the engine was cold so that oil wasn't flowing down from the engine back down to the oil pan. Another was making sure the area was perfectly clean by using brake and parts cleaner to ensure there was no oily residue left on the surface of the metal.

Here's a spread of the installation materials, minus the brake and parts cleaner:
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/8268/7o4o.jpg


Results:

I'm happy to report that after nearly a thousand miles of spirited driving, there is not a single drop of oil present. I would continuously check after every hard drive but now I've stopped doing that since I'm so confident in the part. Hats off to Raceseng for the great design and effort put into this part, highly recommended.

I had to show some respect, so now I am rocking their sticker on my rear window along with my Proud of BOXER sticker. :party0030:
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/1037/ufsa.jpg


B-b-b-bonus! Here is what the final version of their plate will look like:

wow! great review and this product will help many members!

Watching

Clipdat,

I am curious as to how well this works down the line. Keep us posted!

-Cars By JohnnyRey

When will it be ready?

I know that the production is underway, maybe @Raceseng will chime in here on Monday with an estimated availability date and price. :)

Fan tastic

I agree with this review.

Raceseng also sent me this to test out for my turbo application.

With the stock cam plate, i had a massive oil leak. More so after i mounted a scavenger oil pump.

This cam plate solved my leak issues. I put over 5000 miles on this already with the turbo and still no leaks.

Great product! Top notch company :)

1. What was the gray gasket sealer used for?

2. In the picture of the block with the plate removed, was there an O-ring located in the small relief around the upper opening since I do not see a small O-ring anywhere in your pictures. (There is one on the new plate)

3. Where is this plate located on the block?

The Permatex gray was placed over the upper and lower seams to bolster the sealant of that particular area along with the rubber o-ring. I believe it's the same methodology that Subaru recommends for sealing of timing plate covers.

The secondary o-ring will likely not be on the production plate. There doesn't seem to be any oil flow coming from that secondary hole so I believe it's inclusion on the prototype plate was a "just in case" type scenario.

The physical location of the plate is the passenger side rear of the engine. If you pop the hood and stick your head down in the area where the battery is you will see the oem plate.

the cam plate is located just above the downpipe.

if you're leaking oil, it will drip down the downpipe and you'll definitely smell it burning

Subscribed.

Nice looking product but how it it better than properly RTV'ing your stock plate (other than aesthetics)? I fixed my stock plate about 5-6k ago, no leaks.

Top not work as usual @Raceseng! Have you considered offering a cam plate with an optional oil return port?