Valve cover cap.

[traps]

F this AZ crap its leaking.....anyone know where to get a decent one and just the two gromet seals for valve cover. Tired of this this leaking and making a mess. Part number and parts house if possible. This universal crap sucks

[Indiana]

They are all the same its how you install it that makes a difference. You can't mash the gasket up in the groove of the valve cover and flip it over and expect any of them to seal. looking at the valve cover, put a small bead of sealant in the curve where it lays over the back cam tower cap. Place the gasket in the groove, do not mash it in just enough so it won't fall out when you filp it over. If its a used gasket you may need a to put a film of sealant over the entire gasket just very thin. The groove in the valve cover can NOT BE OILY. Put a bead of sealant over the rear cam tower cap where the gasket will make contact, it can be wide just let it stay in a bead don't smear it around and let it go down to the corners on each side of the curve where it meets the head. Pull the front half moon shaped plug and put a thin layer in its groove and put it back in the head then a thin bead across the top of it extending off either end of it just a little. Flip the valve cover over and while looking through a bolt hole, let the valve cover gently go down onto the head while watching to see that the bolt holes and threaded holes line up. Gently push down on the valve cover and at the same time slighly slip forward and rearward one time in each direction, don't try and push the gasket into the groove. Oil the bolt shoulder where it slips through the gromet but don't oil the gromet. As the bolt tightens the gromet will grip the bolt and give a false sense of the torque to turn it and don't oil the gromet and put the bolts in finger tight. Place a finger(s) against the head at the gap between the head and the valve cover and feel the distance between the two and as you tighten each bolt down a little at a time feel that gap begin to close. When you get the bolts tightened down to the point you can't feel the valve cover move any more stop tightening the bolts. Let it sit an hour or how ever long it says on your package for the sealant to cure then you can start the engine and it won't ever leak again. Don't remove or mess with the sealant that oozed out the back just leave it there but what did come out in the front gap where you have to look at it, you can smear it off before it cures. After you have an engine that's put a few 1000 miles on it and you have to remove the valve cover again you have to repeat this but clean the old sealant off of the heat but you can leave the gasket in the valve cover just wipe off the oil then put a thin layer all around the flat surface of the gasket. You'll still want to put some over the rear tower cap and in each corner just not nearly as much as you did the first time because the gasket is already set in the valve cover to fill the difference in the two curves.

 

The oil cap, its not the seals that are bad its the tin strip that holds them down that bends on some. If you get an aftemarket cap, see if you can swap over the old OEM metal strip. You can get that same OEM cap at some autoparts stores. Rockauto.com has them for $5.72 part # 0160050. You can also pick up a few extra valve cover gaskets at the same time from there, they are on close out for $2.92 BeckArnlet part #0361254 or you can get it with the end plug for .62 cents more.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Indiana