I took my 5th/6th port sleeves out for cleaning and to renovate the apparently not working actuators, and now that I'm ready to re-insert them I'm wondering if I should lubricate them with engine oil or something first. If anyone has done this before and can let me know, I'd appreciate it. The FSM says nothing about that.

 

I used motor oil - it didn't hurt - they have been working a year now.

 

i used WD... mine have been workin.. i'm sure any basic oil will work fine

 

To my understanding, they should work without lubrication. But I guess a little wouldnt hurt.

 

I used assembly lube. I figure there should be a little something to lube them since they felt scrapey going in at first. Mine were not there in the first place though so it could have been a little carbon from being open so long(i did clean it better after that first try though). Hope they work as well for you as they did for me!

 

Okay, sounds like its a Good Idea (tm)... thanks for the feedback.

I was just cleaning out the holes on my exhaust manifold and the damn tap just broke on me (using proper oil and not a great amount of force, either, mind you. I know how to tap). So I'm a little torqued (pardon the pun)...

 

I Inserted them In dry. No need for oil or other lubricant. These agents are likely to attract gunk which In turn will make your Auxilliary Port Sleeves sluggish overtime. If you can assure your Actuators open on demand, I'd go dry. Otherwise the same lub may come back to haunt you.

 

Okay, I can see the argument for inserting them dry, but when I pulled the old ones out part of what made them stuck was the blow-by oil and exhaust junk. The nice thin coating of engine oil they appeared to have was about the only thing that helped me pull them out in the first place. Keep in mind this engine had just over 100k on it and has probably NEVER been overhauled (I recently bought it). I know that the opening in the rotor housing still has junk in it, and there is no way I'm going in there to clean it out, lest I knock junk in that will damage the rotor chamber. So, knowing there is possibly stuff that will cause problems, would it not be wiser to provide a small coat of oil to enable the ports to move more freely against that junk? I might have to remove and clean them periodically but that's not a big deal for me I guess, and I'd rather have them work reliably than possibly stick at some point.

I would expect dry ports to collect sticky stuff just as easily as oiled ports, since the only way stuff gets in there is to be blow in by the exhaust backpressure during the overlap of the intake/exhaust cycle, and having oil in there might actually prevent some of those particles from getting in, rather than collecting them, I don't know. But if they seem to work just as well either way, it would seem (to me) to make better sense, given the already messy condition of the housings, to oil them to hopefully prevent any stick that may be caused by current buildups. If I'm wrong somewhere PLEASE let me know ASAP! They are going in soon!