valve cover gasket replacement

[DieselMan]

Greetings again,

Topic

[Matt]

What kind of car is it? Most valve covers are very basic. A few bolts. Remove the sparkplug wires if it’s an overhead cam engine. Remove anything else that may be in your way. Carefully clean the surfaces to be sealed. Use a scraper at a serious angle and be sure you don’t gouge the sealing surfaces. Don’t used a cookie on a die grinder!! Then use whatever if any sealer is recommended with the new gasket, make sure you keep it lined up right, pop it on and torque bolts to spec. I know a few of Eric’s videos show the process.. Lemme go look for one.

Oh, and typcally, they would only be replaced when they start leaking, and can be replaced in as little as ten minutes to maybe an hour on one with harder to reach bolts and stuff in the way, etc..

[Matt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiIi9Elj … ideo_title

I couldn’t really find anything in Eric’s stockpile, but this guy has alot of videos on his seriously modded Eclipse. I saw what your car was in the last sentence. He doesn’t show pulling the cover in this video, and he really only starts going over installing the cover at about 8 and a half to 9 minutes into the video. You could get an idea of what’s involved from the vid, and he has alot of neat stuff on his channel anyway, especially if yer into them dang Mistubishis. Doesn’t look too bad.

[skim3544]

Easy with right tools. You can usually remove several bolts and little tapping of mallet, it should come out. Do not use excessive force, just light taps around the edge of the cover.

There are no set time on when it would go bad. Over the time of the engine, these things will develop leak and you just have to change it out. I am not sure about your car, but I can usually replace these in 30 – 40 minutes for inline engines. Some V6 engines can be difficult due to the rear cover clearance.

Make sure to read a repair manual, there are locations that you would have to use RTV.

[DieselMan]

If it takes you 30-40 minutes it will probably take me about 90 since it will be my first time.

I got the high temp RTV.

It will be very tempting to not put the valve cover in the dishwasher, but I am probable guessing that is not a good idea.

I am hoping this will solve the oil leak.

The last time the valve cover gasket was replaced was ~90K ago or 5-6 years ago.

Thanks!

[skim3544]

It is important that you do not apply RTV everywhere – this is why you would need to look up manual and figure out where. For Honda it is right next to the hole for Cam shaft rod. Some people use permatex instead RTV. (RTV is known to break off and circulate in the engine with the oil when excessively used)

[dreamer2355]

The best of sourcing oil leaks is to clean the area thoroughly with engine degreaser then after a few days, it may be easier to visualize the leak. You can also use a dye and a black light also.

[crandall]

I would also recommend getting your gasket from the dealer as opposed to the local auto store. You need this to be as close to OEM as possible, or your gasket might not fit right.

I ran into this very problem a few months ago installing a valve cover gasket on a Honda Accord. The Advanced Auto gasket just wouldn’t fit right. Got the one from my local Honda Dealer and it went on perfect. Also, you only need a little RTV, just on those little tab areas that go around the valve cover, and just a dab, not much.

You should also do your spark plug seals as well when you make this repair.

[Trcustoms719]

This is a 2.0 right?
It’s not that bad if it is (4 10mm bolts that hold the cover on i believe) plus whatever wires and stuff you have to more out of the way.
I also think these have the coil pack mounted on the valve cover ( just unplug the connector going to it and remove your plug wires.

[EricTheCarGuy]

One more thing I would like to add is that if you recently started running synthetic oil stop as this will cause the engine to burn and leak oil. I know it sounds crazy but it’s true as synthetics don’t flow in the same way as regular oil. Also make sure you’re using the correct viscosity as called for by the manufacturer for your engine as using the wrong oil could cause engine damage or the leaks that you describe. Lastly the best thing you can do to protect the seals of your engine is to change your oil on a regular basis, as oil gets old it becomes acidic and eats away at the metal and rubber parts of the engine causing leaks, rubber parts become hard and brittle and engine parts become pitted and worn so to prevent this a good maintenance schedule is a great defense.

[Author]

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