i thought i had fixed the seals on my valve cover and spark [plug gaskets. i cleaned em off real good and used black rtv to seal it up. 15 hours later i undertook a 450 mile trip. car was fine wthe whole way and still runs, with no smoke. went out this morning to check on it. there is a pool of oil behind where the plug boots go into the holes. its just a puddle pof oil on my vlave cover. no what the hell do i do?

did u use gaskets ur just the rtv seal stuff. When i changed mine i put new gasket on the valve cover with a little bit of the sealent on the corners and by the front and rear camshaft caps. I also put some on the gaskets for the sparkplug holes and rubbed my finger on it to make sure it was even all the way around let it set a little bit and u shouldnt have nemore leaks.:thumbsup

i used the ld gaskets out of necessity but cleaned em off well, and i used rtv everywhere!

is there a problem driving it minimally?

hopefully i can fix it before the 450 mile trip back (which i made n one tankl of gas thank you very much
haha



did you apply rtv to the gasket or the metal, and did you let it sit BEFORE bolting everything on?

can you explain exactly what you did cause ive done it twice now and it leaks

Sence u used ur old gasket make sure it fits good into the valve cover and the spark plug gaskets fit good. I put the rtv sealent on the head about a 1/8 inch thick i took my finger and made it smooth and made sure it was a complete circle around the spark plugs holes. I put it in the corners and where the gasket goes up over the camshart caps. I then set the valve cover on the head and tightend it down. I would let it set for at least a couple hours to let it dry. It takes 24 hours for it to cure i think but mine was fine after a couple hours. U shouldnt have ne leaks. I hope this helps but just make sure the sparkplug gaskets r sitting in there good if they r not that is what is causing u problem.

everything looked okay. i guess i'll just tear it down again and check and do it over.

what was up with the smartass comment on the crank puller question? I used a different type puller then u did probably i used one called a harmonic puller or something like that for a neon.

sorry wrong question

Could be your oil fill cap leaking, expecially if its pooling up on top of the valve cover.

You can drive it to south america and you're not going to hurt a damn thing as long as you make sure you've got enough oil in the motor.

Don't Panic.

yeah, it looks like the only symptom is oil loss. i'll take a long look tomorrow. thanks

As Dino said, you could drive it as long as you want so long as you have enough oil. Shit, you could even drive down to Mexico where the damned motor was built and complain to the guy who put it together if you wanted!
-=B-=

Youre supposed to apply the RTV to the actual valve cover so that the gasket stays in it. Then apply rtv to the corners of the head and for the semi circular seal. Youre also suppsoed to clean the hell out of the area to make sure there is no oil residue on the surface. Using the old gasket is a bad idea. And when the oil cap leaks (like mine is doing) it doesnt really create a puddle, unless theres like.. no oil filler cap rubber gasket on there at all. Your problem may be much more severe.

i think i just need to get some new gaskets and get all the oil off. i was in a hurry the first time and so i cleaned off all the old rtv stuff but there was probably oily residue. I did think ahead and put rtv on the valve cover to hold the gasket though. i just need to take it apart and do it very thoroughly. it got me here so i guess it was good enough to do what i needed. now i just need to make it permanent.


anyone think this is more than a gasket issue?

Sounds like gaskets to me.....get new ones and don't use the old ones.

I've never used RTV on the valvecover gaskets, and never have had any leaks. Be sure your vlavecover isnt warped or anything. Be sure its nice and clean, and that the gasket seats properly on the valvecover when you go to put it on. The spark plug gaskets like to pop out when you tip the vlavecover over to put it on, so be careful of that. Our VC gasket is designed so you dont need ANY RTV or sealer on it to do its job. Find out why its not sealing properly. Warped cover or misaligned gaskets is what i am thinking. Never overtighten the VC bolts either,if they had been tightened down really hard, then that could have bent up the valvecover. I believe you only need like 10 FT lbs of torque on it, which is basically just snuging up the bolts.

i'll just get some new gaskets i guess. thats what i wanted to do but they didn't have em. hope i don't need a new VC

another problem same thing. oil is now only in cylinder 1 and so i think new gaskets will seal that up, but it also appears that oil may be leaking out of the fill cap. is there supposed to be a gasket on that, because there doens't seem to be.....

The fsm says to use sealant(Loctite 18718) on the camshaft cap corners and over the semi-circular plug toward the end of the intake cam. It also specifies a torquing sequence for the cover. Seemed a bit odd not to be gobbing rtv on the whole thing, and the torqe specs seem a little light...but its working for me.



95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

While i was replacing the gasket last week i took the opportunity to spray many coats of 1200 degree paint, then a few clearcoats of 500 degree paint. Turned out really good.
Only problem i had, while torquing down the top left bolt it broke. Helicoil(sp?) wasnt an option so just filled the remaining hole with RTV. Isnt leaking so far:thumbsup

WELL WELL WELL, heres what i know NOW!

cylinder 2 had oil in it weeks ago, cleaned it out. took everything apart later, cylinder 1 had oil. cleaned it out, cylinder 1 and 4 had oil about week later. time to seal everything! sealed it all really well, and drove up 450 miles. whoa ho, oil everywhere. okay okay, new gaskets. got new gaskets and switched em all this morning. a mile later, more oil pooled on top of the valve cover than ive ever seen. cyl 1 thru 3 full, 4 a little

eyes zoom in on the oil CAP!. take it off, bad O-ring!!!!

well after replacing the o-ring, the oil seems to be contained in the damn valve cover.

stupid stupid oil cap. we'll see if that truely solves it
i think im going to resort to the honda type oil cap for the better placement of the sealing o-ring