407 SV gasket replacement costs and viability

In terms of coils. I have found none are especially reliable. They also tend to let you down at the most inconvenient time. It is a pretty easy job to replace a dud coil, even the back ones, but damn annoying when they have only done 20 or 30KKs. We bought our pug second hand with all repair paperwork and less than 80KK on it in 2009. It had had 2 complete coil pack replacements in that time with a cost of around $1K each. The advice back then was that you are best to replace all coils together. I have spent a fair bit on coils for this car in the last 13 years and even the recommended Delphis have let me down with less than 30K on them. No oil contamination in plug holes or anything like that. The latest coil aquisition was for a pair of new Chinese Delphis (Delphi was sold in recent years apparently) from these guys. I purchased 1 pair just to see how good they were, then went again. The best quote from my Aussie supplier was around double that.
Best price and fast delivery from Europe. https://spareto.com/products/delphi-ignition-coil/gn10240-12b1 Less than $A120 for 2, delivered in less than a fortnight.
 
Put your best, most reliable coils on the rear bank. Then you can leave known good spares in the boot and change them on the front bank as needed via a single bolt.
 
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In terms of coils. I have found none are especially reliable. They also tend to let you down at the most inconvenient time. It is a pretty easy job to replace a dud coil, even the back ones, but damn annoying when they have only done 20 or 30KKs. We bought our pug second hand with all repair paperwork and less than 80KK on it in 2009. It had had 2 complete coil pack replacements in that time with a cost of around $1K each. The advice back then was that you are best to replace all coils together. I have spent a fair bit on coils for this car in the last 13 years and even the recommended Delphis have let me down with less than 30K on them. No oil contamination in plug holes or anything like that. The latest coil aquisition was for a pair of new Chinese Delphis (Delphi was sold in recent years apparently) from these guys. I purchased 1 pair just to see how good they were, then went again. The best quote from my Aussie supplier was around double that.
Best price and fast delivery from Europe. https://spareto.com/products/delphi-ignition-coil/gn10240-12b1 Less than $A120 for 2, delivered in less than a fortnight.
I have a V6 Laguna ii which has a similar engine, I have replaced about 3 or 4 pencil coils over the past 7 years that I have had this car. I have been using 2nd hand coils as I was given the remains of what came out of a car that had all its coils replaced. There has never been any codes given and looks like the coils have failed on the secondary side.

When mine have failed the car just drops a cylinder with vibration and a loss of power.

If I was travelling interstate I carry a couple of spare coils, 8mm socket, extension, ratchet and a flat bladed screw driver so that you can change a coil on the side of the road. My method of diagnosing which coil is at fault is with the engine idling is to one at a time remove the primary plug on the coils and see if the revs drop or not, if they don't you have the culprit. I do this for the front three cylinders as you can get to these easily. If none of the front three are at fault its got to be one of the back three. So remove inlet manifold and swap the front back of coils over with the front, replace the manifold and with the engine idling again do the remove the primary plug test again on each coil. Replace faulty coil and you are good to go again.
 
I have a V6 Laguna ii which has a similar engine, I have replaced about 3 or 4 pencil coils over the past 7 years that I have had this car. I have been using 2nd hand coils as I was given the remains of what came out of a car that had all its coils replaced. There has never been any codes given and looks like the coils have failed on the secondary side.

When mine have failed the car just drops a cylinder with vibration and a loss of power.

If I was travelling interstate I carry a couple of spare coils, 8mm socket, extension, ratchet and a flat bladed screw driver so that you can change a coil on the side of the road. My method of diagnosing which coil is at fault is with the engine idling is to one at a time remove the primary plug on the coils and see if the revs drop or not, if they don't you have the culprit. I do this for the front three cylinders as you can get to these easily. If none of the front three are at fault its got to be one of the back three. So remove inlet manifold and swap the front back of coils over with the front, replace the manifold and with the engine idling again do the remove the primary plug test again on each coil. Replace faulty coil and you are good to go again.
I carry a compact tool kit when driving about with my 203 Poubelle. It was common practice back in the day when tools plus some basic knowledge were an essential part of motoring as there just wasn't the help that is available now (although it was marvelous what most country blacksmiths could do!) Col's comments on what he carries on an interstate trip today make me wonder if we've advanced much......... and all for an ostensibly modern vehicle......... By the way, I still haven't had to open the tool kit yet. This thread sure makes me appreciate Poubelle even more. Old is not necessarily bad (but try and tell a Millenial that!🤨)
 
I carry a compact tool kit when driving about with my 203 Poubelle. It was common practice back in the day when tools plus some basic knowledge were an essential part of motoring as there just wasn't the help that is available now (although it was marvelous what most country blacksmiths could do!) Col's comments on what he carries on an interstate trip today make me wonder if we've advanced much......... and all for an ostensibly modern vehicle......... By the way, I still haven't had to open the tool kit yet. This thread sure makes me appreciate Poubelle even more. Old is not necessarily bad (but try and tell a Millenial that!🤨)
I just carry some spare parts and the tools to fix minor stuff at the side of the road. Even if you have road side assist its is most likely that you will be sitting on the side of the road of at least 30 minutes.

I only carried tools in my older cars but rarely need them. I have started carrying tools in the modern cars as well as I have been caught out. As luck may have it I have been close to a friends house and been able to borrow some tools but no doubt one day my luck will run out and I will be miles from anywhere when I have a problem.

When I have lost a pencil coil I have just driven home with it missing and fix when home.
 
If I replace wipers I put the old ones in the car somewhere. You could do the same with fan belts that might be an odd size, maybe a plug or two and so on. The original Sagem coils were known to be a bit dodgy, so spares were smart. A spare plug for the EP6 and EB2 engines is not a bad idea as they work fairly hard and you likely won't find them at a random Repco on Saturday afternoon.

dib dib dob dob ...
 
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If I replace wipers I put the old ones in the car somewhere. You could do the same with fan belts that might be an odd size, maybe a plug or two and so on. The original Sagem coils were known to be a bit dodgy, so spares were smart. A spare plug for the EP6 and EB2 engines is not a bad idea as they work fairly hard and you likely won't find them at a random Repco on Saturday afternoon.

dib dib dob dob ...
Yep carry a spare auxiliary belt and also the tool to flick the tensioner over centre.

Yep Be Prepared
 
Thanks for all the additional tips. I have always been wary of pulling off the coil connecting leads while the engine was running for fear of causing a damaging voltage spike (if that is even possible).
Back to the original thread topic. I finally seem to have had a win sealing the cam covers. Locktite 5980 (used to be called Black Max). Clean all surfaces several times with carby cleaner and thoroughly dry. Despite doing this my first attempt on the back cover failed and I noticed when I pulled it off it let go of the cast surface on the underside of the top cover quite easily, so I made extra sure second time around that I not only cleaned that surface really well but just to make sure of max adhesion applied the sealant to that surface first. I also delayed torquing the bolts.
My tip - Apply sealant in a continuous bead to the top plate surface or groove in plastic cover and place immediately BUT ONLY FINGER TIGHTEN bolts. Allow to sit for at least 30hours and torque as per manual in a 2 stage spiral pattern - first to 5Nm, second to 8Nm. It cost me $180 for a 1/4" torque wrench but it beats guessing. I had tried re-torquing the plastic cover bolts on the front bank before removing to see if that helped stop leaking but it made no difference. After removing the old seal it appears that it has hardened over time and lost the flex needed to remain pressure tight.
So far I have only done the front and back exhaust cam covers which has stopped the main oil leaks onto the exhaust manifold. The oil build up in the spark plug recesses I can deal with periodically. It has taken a few runs to burn off the old oil on the exhaust manifolds but has saved the big job of an engine top end pull down for the present.
I also replaced the cambelt which was 13 years old (only 65ks in that time) as I wanted to make sure the camshaft and main crank seal were not leaking and the cambelt was not contaminated. Oil from the rear cam cover had managed to enter behind the cambelt covers and was dripping out the bottom under the crank pulley making it look like I had a major seal leak. The cambelt looked as good as new - as they always do!
 
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In my storage area are 2 x 406 with the first version of the V6 and a 406 Coupe along with a 1st series 607 with the newer Porsche modified V6 engines. Of the older cars 1 has 630,000 Km on the clock and runs really well. Being a diesel lad I had no interest in a Peugeot 406 V6 and only bought it for a few parts that were useful to a diesel 406. It came with the service records and after finding that it had done the 630,000 Km I started to think differently about the Peugeot V6 and went to the trouble of tracking down the previous owner. Usually those engines, because they are metal to metal seal, will start to leak not long after 150,000kms which is also about the time the auto gear box decides to give trouble too. I learnt that my car had suffered those troubles and that a full on reseal job had been done to cure the problem from then on. The auto box died pretty well on schedule and was replaced by a later model used one that was sourced from Darwin and since then it has performed admirably. The owner said he was reluctant to part with the 'old girl' but he was of the opinion that the auto box had died again and not worth the cost and effort.
With the engine still going like a clock I looked at going to the trouble of adding auto oil so it could be driven and that is when I discovered the box was still a goer unlike the right hand drive shaft centre bearing which had died and thereby caused the auto box seal to flog out which in turn let the oil spill out onto the exhaust and cause lots of white smoke which fooled the owner into blaming the box. I did a fair bit of research into those ZF boxes and found from owners that the filters were found to be very dirty when the box was opened up for repair. So, why has this one done a provable say 400,000 k without problem ? To me the answer lies in the fact that in their youth the clutch packs release a lot of filter clogging material which is not easily removed until the box is taken out in order to get to the wounded parts and the filter to replace them and from then on the cleansed clutch packs give off damn all filter fouling dust.
The usual seals are now leaking on my 153,000Km Coupe and will be replaced when time permits, but I intend to accept the advise of a very wise Frogger and remove both engine and gear box at the same time so the box can be checked thoroughly and cleaned while the resealing of the engine is easier with the whole thing readily accessed. It is likely that we may open the engine for a 'freshen up' and a balance while we're at it. From then on it should be one hell of a great car to do a spot of touring.
Hoping that my experiences are of benefit and offer an alternative to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Feel free to contact me if you want further info or a chat. Cheers kelpiebat.
 
Thanks Kelpiebat. 630 000ks is not to be sneezed at. My mate was skiting today about the 500 000 plus his old Nissan Patrol has done but as he aknowledged ... it is a bit of a truck.
I started replacing the auto oil at around 120000ks (drain and replace around 4 litres Mobil LT each engine oil change) so hopefully I get a bit longer out of it.
 
I have a 2006 407 SV V6 that I bought last year off the original owner with only 96k on it. About 3 months ago it started leaking oil on to the exhaust and would smoke from the engine when you stopped at lights or pulled up. I replaced both the cam solenoids (that were leaking from the top) and resealed both the aliminium and plastic rocker covers with Permatex ultimate black (had to do it twice as first time didn't use enough to seal it properly), and fingers crossed all good now, no more leaks or smoke.

When I put a straight edge up against the plastic covers they were noticeably warped.

The oil leaks did take out the a/c compressor, the alternator as well, which had to be replaced/reconditioned.

I followed this excellent video, but took special care with the breather hoses so not to snap them.

 
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