Yes, I saw that in another post. The oil leak is on the passenger-side head, no dizzy there, but does the shaft still need that o-ring?

No, there's only the cam seal on that side.... there is an oil gallery plug on the block front below the "V", but if it's leaking at the front of the head - and it's not the valve cover - the cam seal is about the only suspect.

Frank

Nah, Frank, he just got the bead size wrong. Must have used my figures.

Seriously, I bet it's the seal. Sorry. It goes faster with practice. I've had my share of redo's. I nicked the crank front seal on one of Powell's. Made a burr I missed prying off the crank timing sprocket. At least you don't have to fool with that....

The shop where I had the heads done said I could replace the seal without taking the head off by removing the camshaft sprocket while still in the truck. Does that sound right? Any hints on taking out the old one and putting in the new?

That should work fine... carefully pry out the old one, but first note the installed depth.... on the heads I have here, it appears that the edge of the seal is flush with the head casting. A large socket can probably be used as a seal driver/installer. Examine the seal surface on the cam for burrs that could have cut the seal lip.

Frank

Yes, that's the way I'd do it. You still have to tear down the front to take the timing belt off. BEFORE you take off the belt, break loose the bolt on the cam sprocket. This will strain the belt, so get a new one. Then just pry the old seal out of the bore with whatever tool you can get between the cam and metal of the seal. I use a big screwdriver. Put a pad against the head to pry against, and it levers out easy. Do not scratch the seal bore or the cam seal surface. I wrap the end of the screwdriver with tape to prevent scratches. Then take the new seal and grease the seal surface. I use hitemp silicone brake grease. I also pack the back side groove of the rubber part of the seal with grease, where the little spring is. May be overkill, but...

To install the seal, take a tube/pipe of proper diameter to rest on the outer part of the metal of the seal (a big deep socket also works) AND go over the cam nose. I run a smear of RTV around the outer steel rim of the seal for belt and suspenders. Then gently tap the seal into the seal bore with a hammer and the tube/pipe/socket, lip to the engine side, until the front face is level with the front of the head. Put the cam sprocket back on with a dab of LockTite on the bolt, install the OLD belt (timing is unimportant here since it's not an interference engine), and torque the sprocket bolt down to spec. Then align the motor to the marks per the fsm, and install and tension the new belt. Make sure you rotate the engine a couple of times by hand with the crank pulley bolt and check the timing alignment, put the front back together, and you're done.

BTW, BEFORE you tear the front down all the way, pull that side cam sprocket cover and look to be SURE it's the seal. I use baby powder and a baby ear syringe to dust it on with to find the oil leak track.

Do you have the fsm? The haynes is probably adequate for this job, but I've never followed it for this task.

Things were going nicely until I got to the point where I exposed the seal and could see what was going on. Its clear that the shaft is not centered. It compresses the seal more on the bottom than the top, hence the leak. I was pretty careful when I put the rockers back on, so I'm not sure what the deal is, but hopefully you can set me straight.

This is NOT GOOD. Either the cam or the cam bearings are toast, I think, for the cam to be off center in the seal bore. Can you move the cam up and down? Is the old seal somehow warped, and the cam is still centered in the bore? And doesn't wiggle? I sure hope so...

Pull the old seal in any case, AFTER you take some real good pictures of it from several angles, including in line with the cam. Evidence, you see....

With a tough to get out seal I found I could drill two small holes into the seal's metal backing, then use a couple of metal screws screwed into the holes, grab the screw heads with a plyer and pull it out. Worked pretty well. Any metal chips did not go past the rubber seal and stayed on the outside. Coating the drill bit with grease also holds some chips. I tried a screwdriver but found the chance of scoring the shaft was quite high.

That is one I have not heard or seen in a long time. My dad used to use that when replacing the valve cover gasket on his 68 Chevelle. I think they were made out of cork or something similar.