Stellpflug

I noticed a small drop of oil under the left rear side of my engine. After the shock and disbelief, I crawled under and found that about three of the bolts on the valve cover had a little bit of oil on them. Not a whole bunch, but enough to see and get my finger dirty.

Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, do you know the time and expense involved? Is it just a gasket or and I looking at something more?

thanks,
Chris

geo.aigel

Gasket. Cheap fix. Tight spot though.

You have an early car? They have magnesium covers that mismatch in CTE with the heads. If you change to later aluminum covers, it will help prevent leaks. I have seen this referred to as the 'turbo valve cover conversion' before, I think in Dempsey's 101 project book.

Cheers, George

Stellpflug

It's an 84. I belive by this model year, the covers were made of alum.

geo.aigel

Yup. I think the 78 and up had alu. They still may leak of course.

George

ZCAT3

Chris - this is very normal. Just about any 80s 911 will have a little oil leak through at the lower valve cover studs. Usually it bakes off or blows off, but if you let the car sit in the same spot at idle for a while some oil may hit the ground. Usually you can fix this by replacing the valve cover gaskets and nylock nuts. A new gasket and nut kit is about $25 (including the upper cover pieces as well). You can change the gaskets without draining the oil but be preapared to have some spill out. I would first get a torque wrench and check that the nuts are all correctly torqued. I Believe you want 6 ft. lbs. or so.

Stellpflug

I have the Bentley and Haynes manuals for repair. Do you guys have any other recommendations? Are the factory workshop manuals necessary?

thanks again,
Chris

ZCAT3

For this project - and almost anything you would do yourself, the Bentley Manual will be sufficient.

Tbenedikt

New gaskets should do the trick. If you need more info call me at 1-800-
741 - 5252

randlej

I've got this same problem. Leakage at the nut/stud on the lower valve covers. Even when I replaced with new nylocks and the silicone gaskets w/ bead.

Sealing edges look good, no nicks, scratches, etc. Proper torque and tightening sequence.

Any other advice out there?

r911

put coarse sand paper over a piece of thick glass; run the valve cover over it until all the edges are shiny; clean and do what they said above.

fixnprsh

you can hold them together, mating surfaces together and hold at one end to see if they are slightly warped. also paint the mating surface before you block sand. if you have any low spots they will show up, or spend $40 at a machine shop and have them decked. but they all seem to leak at the studs regardless even with new nylocks, last one i did was a 930 that had persistent leaks on both lowers and I had resealed them a couple times before, this time I tried a little silicone gasket goop on the studs and havent seen it come back yet.

r911

"paint the mating surface" - not needed -- they will be dull and turn shiny as they are abraded

don't block sand either - use the surface palte procedure I noted earlier.

fixnprsh

i use red paint as it does help,, as far as block sanding, I ment with a thick block of glass like you said, not a chunk of 2x4! LOL

r911

OK - I think the paint is more trouble than its worth, but to each his own

and palte -- means plate

PS - not too much torque on the nuts.

redtdi96

I have an 80 SC. When the valve cover gasket leaks oil, it winds up on the cat, and make s bad smoke!
Now when I bought car it has a test pipe, I put on a cat, it there a shield betwween the cat and the valvecover??

Thanks
Bruce