Apparantly the optispark seal melted itself to the timing chain cover! It took me an hour to chip away at it and it still doesn't look like it all came off! Little pieces of rubber fell behind the timing cover so let's hope it doesn't kill anything.

Wasn't this thing supposed to just pop out?

 

Did you buy a new seal? If you get the new one, you'll see that it's not the rubber, it's the rubber and a new piece of metal...

You hammer out the whole metal ring, which has the rubber attached to it... the new seal includes the new metal ring.

Use a piece of wood or a rubber hammer (not a metal to metal contact situation) to put the new one in. Or maybe an installation tool if you have one.

-Michael

 

I'd pull the timing cover and clean it up. You don't want chunks of crap in your oil pickup - that's where its going to go as soon as you crank it back up.

Ryan

 

It's a 94 non vented opti. The new rubber seal is about 1" in diameter with a small spring around the inner diameter.