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How to stop valve cover gasket leaks Posted by Gary Stottler [Email]  (#1463) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Gary Stottler) on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:27:57
In Reply to: Re: Valve Cover Gasket - tPart Numbers, Gary Stottler [Profile/Gallery]
, Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:12:52
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In my experience, stopping valve cover gasket leaks on a B engine is a multi-step process that will temporarily stop the leak:
1) Remove the valve cover. With the cover up-side down, use a ball peen hammer to flatten the areas around the screw holes so they are flat with the rest of the cover rail (use a straightedge to check). These areas are bent down from years of people over-tightening the screws in vain attempts to stop the leaking. This step is very important - if you don't do this, it will still leak with the new gasket!
2) Check/adjust the valve clearance while you are in there as you are supposed to do that every 12,000 miles anyway.
3) Use brake cleaning solvent or carb cleaner to completely clean and degrease both the screws and the screw holes in the head so that they are completely dry and free of oil and dirt.
4) Spread a thin coat of blue RTV silicone gasket sealer on both sides of the new gasket. (If someone did this the last time, you may need to scrap the remaining sealer off of both the head and the cover).
5) Install the gasket and cover. Carefully tighten the screws only to the correct torque spec. This is very important! The spec is a pretty small number - if you over tighten the screws, they bend the cover again and you are back to step 1! Did I mention, only tighten to spec? :-)
6) Let the silicone cure overnight before running the engine.
7) After 3 warm-up/cool-down cycles, tighten the screws to spec again.
8) Repeat step 7) until the screws no longer get loose from warm-up/cool-down cycles (maybe 3-4 times).
9) Take the screws out, coat with Blue Loc-Tite, and reinstall and tighten to spec one final time.
All this will prevent leaks for just about 10-12 thousand miles, but at that point you have to take the cover off again to check the valve clearance anyway. What fun!
Good Luck,
Gary
posted by 74.44.158...
_______________________________________ Gary Stottler
, Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:40:03, Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:12:52, Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:29:18, Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:51:08, Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:38:57, Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:27:57 <-- Viewing This Message
, Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:12:10
, Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:55:29
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