Valve Cover Gasket Saga (Continued)

[mike mcclurg]

What's the list record for the slowest valve cover
gasket replacement? I plead extenuating circumstances.

I checked and it was the middle of last December when
I first ask for help from the list with splitting the
intake manifold on my '89 100q (NF engine). It seemed
that the bolts were a wee bit tight. Tight they were.
Between then and the weekend before last, I had been
spraying, swearing, tapping, torquing and whatever
trying to get them loose. Didn't want to round out the
6mm allen hex heads on the bolts so I was coaxing them
a little at a time. It turned out that I only rounded
one and I had to drive a ¼" hex drive into that one.
After it finally came loose I left the ¼" hex in it as
a permanent adapter. After each one finally came
loose, I put some anti-seize on it before it was
reinstalled.

As stubborn as the IM bolts were, there was one on the
underside of the throttle body that was worse. It was
the one that goes into the IM without the other end
showing and so impossible to get penetrating solution
to that end. It was the last to come loose.

Naturally, after I had all of them loose, even though
it took 4 months, I had not picked up a valve cover
gasket set. I wasn't going to let that slow me down. I
went ahead and split the IM and pulled the valve cover
to see how bad things were. Turns out I do have what I
believe they call the "shouldered bolts" to keep from
over-tightening the cover on the gasket. I think this
may have been a recall type item on this engine.

After carefully removing the valve cover, what I found
was a gasket that was in pretty good shape except for
about 1" of one end where the last mechanic (monkey
lad?) had apparently broken it while installing it. It
did not look like a new break from my removal. This is
probably where the oil came from that was cooking on
top the IM. After thorough cleaning of the old gasket
and both surfaces of the head and the valve cover, I
carefully reassembled. I used a small amount of gasket
sealant material to marry the ends of the broken
gasket and also at the point where the gasket meets
the rubber half-circle that goes over the cam bearing.

Anyway, after more than a week of driving there is no
evidence of a leak. And oh yeah, I have picked up a
new valve cover gasket set which is ready to install
when I have some free time (~$10 at O'Reilly). At
least the 4 month bolt loosening period is history. On
the other hand, you could say the clock is still
running on my 4 month and counting valve cover gasket
job ;^)

Mike
'89 100q (clean smelling at stop lights now)


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