Alfa Romeo Spider Cigarette Seal Replacement
I wrote this article in 1999 and describes only what I did myself on my car. Your car and experience may be different, proceed with caution at your own risk.
Cigarette Seals are about as long as a cigarette, about twice as thick, and are used to seal the seam between the block and the rear crankshaft cap, and keeps oil from seeping through the seam.
The basic procedure for in-car replacement of the seals is to hoist the engine, remove motor mounts (because several upper pan bolts are hidden behind the mounts), remove pan(s), and replace seals.
You may need the following, which is based on the replacement of cigarette seals on a ’72 Spider with Spica injection:
Tools:
Assorted 13mm and 11mm wrenches and sockets
Engine hoist
Ramps or jack stands
Slide hammer/dent remover
3 inch drywall screw
Cigarette Seal “Installation Kit” (see photo)
Torque wrench
Hammer
Proto Torque Adapter #J5114 (optional)
Materials:
Hylomar and RTV
Brake cleaner or lacquer thinner
Edelbrock Gasgacinch
“PB Breaker” or “Liquid Wrench”
Oil
Parts:
Upper and lower pan gaskets
Cigarette seals
Motor mounts (optional)
Oil Filter
Begin:
Jack up the front of the car to place on jack stands, or drive up ramps. Make sure to block rear wheels, place in gear and engage emergency brake.
Disconnect battery, drain oil, remove air box and remove Spica belt cover. Disconnect Spica long link, oil pressure warning light sensor wire, and front muffler bolts that connect the muffler to the transmission mount. Remove the oil dipstick and its housing (let oil vapor return line dangle under car). Remove motor mount nuts and bolts that attach the motor mount to the frame crossmember.
Motor mount removal:
This may be a good time to break loose the nuts that hold each motor mount to the block (three for each mount). Use either PB Breaker or Liquid Wrench on these nuts and bolts. PB Breaker is available from IPD Volvo in Portland or auto parts stores. A muffler shop raved about this stuff to remove heat-welded nuts. Seems to work fine from what I’ve seen.
On the driver side, the back and top nuts can be reached easily from underneath the car, while the front one can be reached easily from the top. On the passenger side, the back nut can be reached best from underneath, while the top and front are best reached from the top. Note that the passenger side motor mount is much shorter than the driver side, and due to the starter, Spica, intake manifold, and fuel filter, ability to manuver is compromised.
The only nut I had difficulty with (including the crossmember nuts/bolts) is the passenger side rear nut holding the mount to the block. Sockets will not fit on this nut due to clearance problems with the motor mount. Ultimately I used a 13/15mm combo long 12pt wrench with a ½” drive breaker bar inserted into the 15mm end of the wrench. Once I popped it loose it spun off with my fingers!
Now, hoist the engine using the lift with chain attached to the metal strap on the cylinder head. Carefully and slowly lift the engine (car will rise first), while constantly checking for stretching radiator hoses, electrical lines, fuel lines etc. Check the main battery cable attached to the starter solenoid, the radiator fan, and the tranny mounted ground strap too!
You should be able to very carefully lift the engine until the bellhousing itself is in contact with the tunnel, and the bellhousing bolts are just in front of the tunnel. Once the bellhousing is in contact with the tunnel, lift no further. No additional clearance will be attained. Note that I have a small Euro fan blade, so I experienced no clearance issues at all with the radiator, but I have been told by Rick Rodosta that on his late model Spider he had to watch out for clearance there (with a normal blade).
Now undo the motor mount nuts that hold the mounts to the block. From the top of the car the driver side mount should be able to be freed from the three block studs easily and all you need to do is drop the mount to the ground behind the crossmember.
The passenger side is another issue. I had to carefully lower the engine about ½ inch and by pulling on the chain (hoist was on driver side of car, perpendicular to the driveline) towards the driver side while re-hoisting (so bellhousing again came into contact with tunnel) moved the engine over a little bit (maybe ½ - 1 inch max) towards the driver side.
The passenger side mount should now be fairly loose on the studs, but the studs are long. Clearance for removal is hampered by the starter and Spica, but the mount will go slightly forward and down for removal, then can be dropped down behind the crossmember to the floor (it WILL fit through there).
Pan Removal:
Now that the motor mounts are off, the easy part can start! Just remove all the pan bolts and it will fall out. Use your PB or Liquid Wrench on the bolts that have nuts on them, the non-nuted bolts shouldn’t need it. The hardest bolts to get to are the two behind/under the Spica (best reached from the front passenger side from underneath, accessed past the pan) and the one below the Spica timing belt (best reached from top, just have at it with a wrench. It’ll take time but will come up and push against belt lifting it approx. 1/8th inch, not enough to damage the belt when the bolt is fully loose).
All the other bolts and nut/bolt combo’s can be reached from the bottom (except the bolt below fan belt and the two by the oil filter). I left the bolt below the oil sender still in (but loose) as a “catch bolt” while I removed the four back bolts.
I removed the pan while on my back (head towards back of car) with my knees supporting the front of the pan, then I reached over the top of the crossmember to loosen my one “catch” bolt. My pan literally fell loose but my knees were holding it along with my right hand at the back end. I then straightened my knees out to lower the pan out the front with absolutely no clearance problems at all!
If the pan won’t come loose, there are two “cheater holes” in the block: One is just behind the oil filter, the other is behind/below the starter. Presumably by pressing or tapping an implement through these holes it would pop the pan loose. I’d suggest placing lots of rags/blankets under the pan and crossmember if you tap from the top as the pan might crash to the floor!
Cigarette Seal Removal:
The seals should have a hole in the center. Take your drywall screw inserted through your dent remover and thread the screw into the cigarette seal (I went about 1 inch into it) from straight underneath. A few taps of the slide hammer and the seal popped right out. Repeat for the other one.
Now is also a good time to replace the oil filter. Lots of room is available!
A Note on Cigarette Seals:
My car is a ’72. I received two sets of replacement seals from two different suppliers . One from the dealer(OEM), and one from a reputable aftermarket supplier. The engine overhaul manual I have, which describes mostly the late-model Motronic model engine, indicates the minimum length of the seal is to be 63.5-64.5mm. The dealer supplied seal was 65mm long, consistent with the manual. The seals I received from the other supplier were 61mm long. The seals I removed from my block were 59.5mm long (and were shrunk up into the block approx. .5mm).
I initially tried using the dealer supplied seals. The overhaul manual stated to “leave the seal protruding, do NOT trim flush with the block” in order to further compress the seal when pan is mounted, but after I got the dealer seals in the block they protruded approx. 5mm! This is when I checked all the measurements again, including the hole depth in the block cap. I determined that the size I needed was approx. 61mm. Well, I tried to trim the seal down but succeeded in mangling it (no room at all to get up there to trim with razor blade). So the dealer set was not used.
The other supplier’s set was then inserted and was perfect for my block, protruding approx. 1mm (1/16”). Both the dealer and aftermarket sets were equally snug upon insertion.
Based on the above, either set could be used, however be sure to trim the new style/length seals to the proper dimension for older blocks. Leave the length as-is for later blocks. Be sure and know which length your block needs before ordering and inserting! The dealer set appeared to be a brown Viton, while the other suppliers’ was a regular black seal like the OE I removed from the block.
For installation, the manual calls for oil to be used for seal insertion lubrication. All of those I spoke with recommended a dab of sealant on the tip of the seal (the end going into the block) to seal the center hole. It was surmised that the center hole helps bleed air upon installation, or leaves a “compression gap” for seal to give into when compressed into the cap/block hole. Either WD-40 or oil could be used, and I used oil when inserting the seal. I would suspect that the use of RTV on the entire seal upon insertion would be a real pain to clean out of the cap holes, should the procedure need to be repeated in the future. Now you’re ready for the seal installation.
Installation of New Cigarette Seals:
Check condition of the hole where the seal goes to ensure its clean of residue. Put a dab of RTV on the tip of the seal (so that center hole will seal up) that goes up into the engine. With seal lubed with oil, I inserted it in the hole with my fingers about ½-1 inch without any effort using my fingers. To insert the floppy seal any further requires the use of a special “installation kit”.
The kit consists of a short piece of pipe that has an inside diameter just large enough to fit the cigarette seal, with a smaller and longer pipe that fits inside the large pipe. The large pipe fits over the cigarette seal (and this pipe is held flush to the block) while the smaller pipe is used to tap the cigarette seal into place through the large pipe with a small hammer. The pipe is a soft metal material and should be readily available from any hardware store. See also the photo that also shows the 65mm dealer/OEM seals for reference.
Installation of Pan:
Once you’ve got the seals in place, clean all mating surfaces with brake cleaner or lacquer thinner using a clean rag. The Alfa OE upper pan gasket has silicone on each side, so I did not use any RTV or contact cement to hold it in place on either the pan or the block.
I did place a VERY SMALL smear of RTV on the following four places of the block: The front cover-to-block seam on each side of the block, and on the seam between the cap and block where the cigarette seals reside.
Lying on my back I simply lifted my knees and guided the pan into place with my hands. I inserted the back driver side long bolt with nut first using my left hand, with right hand positioned to hold the back of pan and bolt in position (with right hand thumb), and then put the nut on the bolt a little ways. I then repeated for as many of the bolt/nut combo’s as I could reach. Then I inserted as many plain bolts as I could reach, including the two inner back bolts.
NOTE – I noticed that the two outside back bolts (along the back near the flywheel) go up through threaded holes that don’t bottom out like all other holes into the block. As oil appeared to be leaking from back in this area it may be possible that I may have been leaking from the cigarette seals, the pan gasket, AND these bolts. The bolts were really tight, but I assume there is a possibility that if the holes the bolts go into lead into an oil galley or into the back of the block where oil can collect then oil could leak from there. This would be similar to the malady of the front bolts that hold the cylinder head to the block, the ones that are hidden upside down at front of engine.
The Alfa rebuild manual states to use Hylomar for those cylinder head bolts at the front cover, so I simply coated the two outside rear pan bolts with enough Hylomar to seal the those threads and pan holes after cleaning the holes with a clean rag. I inserted these two bolts last, after the pan with gasket was already snugged very lightly up to the block.
OK, now just tighten away around the pan. After I thought it was pretty tight I then brought out the torque wrench. According to the Alfa engine overhaul manual the lower pan bolts are torqued 6-8 ft lbs, while the upper pan bolts are torqued 9-11 ft lbs. I was able torque most of the bolts either straight, or using a Proto Torque Adapter model #J5114 (7/16”, 3/8”drive). For the few that I couldn’t (behind the Spica) discretion was used.
Motor Mounts:
Just reverse of removal. I did not totally tighten down my mounts upon installation to the block (just snug), because I was installing new mounts and wanted to make sure they lined up with the studs/holes on the crossmember as I slowly lowered the engine down. I did need to slightly cajole the driver side motor mount by 1/8” to get the upper bolt into the crossmember. Then, before resting the total weight of the engine on the mounts, I cinched down all the block nuts holding the motor mounts once I was satisfied the mount slots/holes would line up well and had put the nuts on the studs and inserted the bolts in the crossmembers. Upon final lowering of the engine (so full weight is on the mounts) I rechecked the mount-to-crossmember alignment (all was fine) and then tightened down all the mount bolts.
Note: Reasons to replace your motor mounts include, but are not limited to: Cracking and splitting of the mounts, or soft deteriorated mounts causing a sagging engine.
Lower Pan:
While the pan is out you could replace the lower pan gasket. I used Bill Gilham’s method: (to paraphrase) Clean surfaces with lacquer thinner, then dress the pan surfaces and gasket with contact cement. Allow to dry for a long period. Then use paper (I used wax paper) covering all but a few holes and position the gasket while slowly sliding out the paper. Then weight down on the gasket for a period of time sufficient to allow the surfaces to seal.
I used the paper when installing the lower pan on the upper pan too, with the help of a few bolts along the way to keep the pan from shifting as I slid the paper out and lined up the holes.
Wrap up:
Check all the electrical lines, radiator hoses, vapor line, dip stick, oil sender hookup, Spica belt cover (check belt), alternator wires, attach Spica long rod, fill with oil, check muffler mounting bolts and attach air box.
Then go and drive a bunch before you need to do it again (because, I am told, you WILL need to do it again eventually)!