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Zaklee clear timing cover fitment

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TWOpointFORliter

10+ Year Contributor
644
120
Jul 31, 2009
Crown Point, Indiana
I just tried to install my zaklee timing cover over my aem tru time cam gears and it doesn’t fit. Anyone else run into this problem? I’ve always understood that this was the upper timing cover you needed to fit over adjustable cam gears. The mid cover fits with a couple mm to spare. It appears the adjustment bolts on the tru time gears stick out much further than other adjustable cam gears.
 
When i had mine, it was my cam bolts that barely made contact with the cover. I have a customer that has the same issue as you, he trimmed a “circle” caround the cam gear adjusting bolts. I have another customer with no clearance issues at all. So, very inconsistent results if you ask me.
 
Yeah I’m pretty disappointed given how expensive the cover is. I was wondering if it was a inconsistency in the mold or maybe it had been revised at some point?
 
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Mine didnt fit near where the bolts for the cam gear were just drilled them out clearance was good , pic for scale.
 
I didnt want any open holes in my cover, which is the whole point of the cover. Lol. So i milled the head of the cam bolts for my clearance. It didnt need much. I ultimately took the clear cover off and put stock one back on.
 
So it’s the cam bolts that are the issue. I’ll have to look again I thought it was the adjustment bolts for the cam gears. I’ll run with no cover before I start drilling holes in the cover.
 
Are you sure your not buying knockoff AEM cam gears? in my case like others, it was the cam bolts that rub on the cover.
 
Are you sure your not buying knockoff AEM cam gears? in my case like others, it was the cam bolts that rub on the cover.

Not unless extremepsi has gotten into the knockoff distribution business. I’m also running arp cam bolts. Not sure if the head is thicker than the oems.
 
Not unless extremepsi has gotten into the knockoff distribution business. I’m also running arp cam bolts. Not sure if the head is thicker than the oems.
I run the ARP cam bolts too, like I said mine rubbed on the cover, but not the adjustment bolts rubbing, only the actual cam gear to camshaft bolts, my cover was from his original batch so I would say that the mold didnt change.
 
I just tried to install my zaklee timing cover over my aem tru time cam gears and it doesn’t fit. Anyone else run into this problem? I’ve always understood that this was the upper timing cover you needed to fit over adjustable cam gears. The mid cover fits with a couple mm to spare. It appears the adjustment bolts on the tru time gears stick out much further than other adjustable cam gears.

That's interesting I went through a couple of those clear covers, a used zanklee a new hks which both ended up cracking. I recently bought a brand new zanklee cover. I run the brain crower adjustable cam gears with arp hardware (recessed) and just slide the cover over much as possible away from the cam gears before tightening. My issue was a portion of the cam gear itself rubbing and not the bolts. Makes me wonder if all people have this issue with covers and aem true time gears.
 
I would just drill a hole there and put a nice rubber plug in them if you want it watertight, the Honda one we use to plug our wiper hole would work good.
 
Stock gears and bolts work fine,
Stock gears and arp bolts work fine.
Skunk2 gears and arp bolt works fine.

Ive never had an issue with fitment and ive also seen a few use aem and this zaklee cover and been fine also, so not sure on your situation.

The issue is these crack around the 2 VC bolts from vibrations and i have had mine replaced like 4 times now, everytime doing it a different way to make sure it wont crack again and it always does,

However this time i have been good and zero cracks yet and its near its 1 year marker
 
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Here’s mine... But the cover is HKS and ARP cam bolts. Bolts stuck out so far I thought the cover was going to crack. So I milled slots

Edit....

I also replaced the AEM bolts with lower profile button head screws. Because the original bolts rubbed the lower cover.
 
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Stock gears and bolts work fine,
Stock gears and arp bolts work fine.
Skunk2 gears and arp bolt works fine.

Ive never had an issue with fitment and ive also seen a few use aem and this zaklee cover and been fine also, so not sure on your situation.

The issue is these crack around the 2 VC bolts from vibrations and i have had mine replaced like 4 times now, everytime doing it a different way to make sure it wont crack again and it always does,

However this time i have been good and zero cracks yet and its near its 1 year marker


Its because the AEM cam gears are thicker than others
 
I had this same issue when I installed my AEM cam gears. I resolved it by have the thru hole cbored so the cam bolt would sit further down. Also I have not had any cracking issues but I will investigaate this possiblity more as it is coming time to do the timiing belt maintenance for me. So I guess I have north of 50K mile on these now. This is with OEM upper cover for emissions test stealty look & OEM bolts.
 

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No problem with my Fidanza cam gears with OEM bolts. Sounds like this is due to AEM's gears being thicker. Can't really fault Zaklee for that.
 
I use to run the $17 eBay ones, they all had hks markings and came in hks boxes. Got one that said gplus as well.

They all fit fine. I went back with a stock cover because the clear eventually always got dirty and looked out of place (I put 12k miles a year on my dsm last year)
 
Thanks for all the info guys. Looks like I have a decision to make about what route I want to go regarding the cover.
 
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