Valve Cover Gasket Replacement

[deadmeat]

One of the first gaskets to go on your car is going to be your Valve Cover Gasket (VCG). Lots of times, you will see oil spots around the top of the valve head, along where the spark plugs are located, and at the back where the fuel injectors are.

To go about replacing the valve cover gasket, you will need a few things.

#1. Valve cover gasket. Available at any auto parts store, or your local dealership. I got a felpro one for around $15-20 from a discount auto store.

#2. Blue RTV sealant. this stuff is a silicone based "gasket-maker" or sealer for new gaskets.

#3. 10 mm socket and extension, along with a torque bar (available at sears for $20-25 for el-cheapo analog model).

Note: you may also want to buy a new rubber retainer for your pcv valve. it costs about $5 from the dealership. Also, pick up a new pcv valve too. more than likely, yours will crumble to pieces when you try to remove it.

[deadmeat]

your first step is to remove the valve cover.

to do this, you first need to remove the PCV valve, and the tubing from the intake.

the second step you need to do, is to remove the retaining bolts. this is where the 10mm socket and extension is needed. There are ten of them, five on either side of the valve cover.

*Note: PCV valve and intake tube are shown, along with positions of bolts holding the valve cover down. two of which are pointed out by yellow arrows.

[deadmeat]

next you just lift up the valve cover, and remove it. You will then see the rocker arms, your cam shaft, and all those other fun goodies! MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT LET ANY DEBRIS, DIRT, DUST, GARBAGE, ANYTHING get in there. you dont want to ruin your engine, do you?

If you want, now is a good time to remove your rocker arms, and clean them out, as outlined in mrfunji's previous project

might as well since you need to seal up the valve cover eh?

http://www.mx6.com/boardnew/showthre...threadid=40620 (HLA Maintenance)

[deadmeat]

The next thing i did was prep the valve head for resealing. i cleaned along where the old gasket was on the head, and wiped it down and removed all the oil on the surface. pay particular attention to the corners of the valve head, you'll find old atb sealant crap there. Make sure to get rid off all that stuff.

Also, you need to remove the old gasket from the valve cover. that can easily be done with a small screw driver, and then once you get a little bit to tug on, just pull the whole thing out

Sometimes, though, its not that easy. as this gasket ages, it also solidifies into a hard plastic, which can crumble, or basically be a pain in the ass to remove. Patience, grasshopper. Also a good idea to do it away from the car, so no pieces chip off and get into the rocker arm assemblies and mess stuff up.

make sure when you wipe away all the old stuff off the valve head, to wipe away from the rocker arms, so that crap doesnt go into the head.

[deadmeat]

Now that the valve head is clean, and the old gasket removed from the cover, install your new gasket into the cover. this may take a bit to figure out, because its all twisty and weirdly shaped.

make sure to press the gasket into the little ridge thats on the cover, especially at the corners where the cover is rounded.

Once you have installed the new gasket on the valve cover, you also want to apply atb sealant to the corners that are shaded in the picture, on the valve head. as you can see, I started putting on the sealant in the picture. Make sure to coat the whole corner, so that it will not leak, which is a quite common occurence. BE careful when you squeeze the tube, so that you dont have a blow-out on the bottom of it like I did... though i found it easier to stick a clean finger into the blow out, and then just goop it onto the head from there

[deadmeat]

Now that you have the sealant in all four corners, you want to take the valve cover and set it back on top of the valve head. make sure you dont move it around too much when you try to set it.

now you just have to replace the valve head retaining bolts.

I have a shop manual, for the probe, but no where in there does it say that there is a sequence you have to follow for tightening the bolts. so here is what I did just to be on the safe side of things.

after setting the cover, i put the screws in, and just tightened them enough to snug 'em up. then i got out the torque wrench, and started torquing down the bolts. according to the shop manual, you need to torque the bolts to between 5-6 ft lbs.

so this is the pattern i followed to torque down the valve cover.

[deadmeat]

Finally, you are done!

Wait about 10-15 mins for the atb sealant to set, and start to do its thing.

Then, start the car, and let it run for about 5 mins, to warm up the gasket, and let it start to seal. I'm not positively sure how long you need to wait for the gasket to seal, but i only put about 10 miles on the car before I started driving like I usually do, and boosting and everything

[Bala Balasingam]

Great instruction. Iam unable to get the attached images. How do I get the images? Picture is worth than hundred words.
Thanks