goldcountryboy

My driver side valve cover gasket started leaking pretty bad recently,so i finally deceided to fix it. Read the section on replacement in P-car.com and felt pretty confident.The one side took me about two hours to complete.After road testing and lots of checking the area seems dry.However after standing back to admire my work i discover that my exaust tip is protruding out about 1-2inches more than the passenger side.What did i do wrong? Any input will be greatly appreciated.

chris walrod

Since you more than likely removed the muffler to gain access to the [lower] v/c, its possible the muffler isnt hanging on its hanger properly. There is a little hook tab welded onto the muffler that needs to rest on a sheet metal brackets before the large band clamp [around the muffler] is tightened.

If it is indeed hanging properly, sometimes you can loosen all of the clamps and shuttle the muffler fore or aft -some- to realign the tips. Kinda fiddly to do, but its possible.

goldcountryboy

Thanks Chris, back under the car I go.

Black993

how bad was the gasket install? I really need to do mine but am unsure about it....

black ice

It is possible to do it with the muffler on. But you need the right tools. for the couple of bad ones in the back, I used a Gear Wrench and a short hex head driver (it's about 1 inch long, with a hex tail that fits into the Gear Wrench). Two things to worry about:
1) I took the soft tube off the top of the heat exchanger. DON'T drop your hex head driver into the hole. You will have a hard time getting it out.
2) I can't recall for sure but I think the torque spec for those bolts is about 8 lb ft. Very low. Check the book to be sure but I think many are overtightening which results in premature leakage.

Dave

Mike J

Yes, go with the gentle touch on the gaskets. Another key point is to make sure they are torqued the same all around, i.e. the torque is consistent. Since you can't get a torque wrench to all the bolts you need to also get a feel to how much 7-8 ftlbs is. Worse thing that will happen is you will need to tighten the bolts again if they are not tight enough and you get a leak, no big deal.

It seems with new gaskets that its easier to get a good seal since they are more pliable and soft than the ones on the engine (too many heat cycles). I also coated my gasket with a 3M silicon lubricant paste (not the same as the stuff in spray bottles) which keeps the gaskets soft.

Cheers,

MIke

goldcountryboy

All in all it wasn't to bad. I took the muffler off for better access and reinstalling it right seems to be the toughest part for me.I'll have to get back under this weekend and fine tune it.

jimhsu

While you were at it....did you think about replacing your covers with these beauties?

http://imagineauto.com/Merchant2/mer...=IAVALVECOVERS

And....one thing I never read about in all of the lower valve cover DIY instructions:

when you take the valve covers off, do you get a gush of oil coming out, or is the oil drained away already with the engine stopped? Do you have to refill with some or a lot of oil each time you remove the covers?

goldcountryboy

For me their wasn't much oil to contend with. I had the rear of the car on stands and the front tires on the ground.