cigarette seals

["Neil Cotie (EED)" <Neil.Cotie@domain.elided>]

Hi,

Richard Bies was responding to another post which I missed, about cigarette seal installation, I guess. Just a couple comments from my experience:
- I have the factory tool for cigarette seal insertion on 4 cylinders.  It's basically a plate with two pipes fixed perpendicularly to it, with a separate rod/piston to insert into a pipe to push the seal out of the pipe and into the motor.  The plate bolts down to the block, using the same bolts which are used to fasten the sump.  The two pipes are aligned to the holes in the block for the cigarette seals.  
- The tool works quite well in practise but it's essential to align the pipe very accurately with the adjoining hole in the block.  This has to be done for both pipes, one at a time, before inserting the respective seal.
- Freezing the cigarette seals in a plastic bag in the freezer, then inserting them into the tool and the block QUICKLY, definitely helps the entire process.

I asked about cigarette seals recently at an Alfa dealer here in Aachen, and was quite surprised by their answer.  After doing the usual cross-cross-cross-referencing, the conclusion was that the factory does not supply cigarette seals any more.  The factory has cross-referenced the cigarette seal part number to a part for a newer generation (FIAT-based) block, which is....  (insert deep breath here)... RTV silicone... in a special dispenser.

No idea if ARDONA has issued any bulletins about this but this seems to be the conclusion here.

Cheers,
Neil
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