Valve Cover Leak..., please help ASAP i'm stuck :( Options

[tonytutino]

so i tried to change my valve cover gasket today, everything went fine and i bolted it all back together...
about 5 hours later i go to drive to my sister's house and as i pull in i start smelling burning oil and my car smokes a little bit from under the hood. i figured that was just the little oil i spilled on my headers earlier. well i drive to the bank a little later and my oil light comes on, then my car starts smoking real bad. i end up back at her place, check my oil level and i'm at empty and there is a huge trail of oil from where i had driven off earlier.
under the hood i see tons of oil on my alternator, bits splattered on my valve cover and header and alllllllllllllllllllll over the place....did the seal just not set or what?




This post has been edited by tonytutino: Sep 25, 2007 - 11:15 PM

[LewFX]

take a pic for us to make sure your not missing anything

[tonytutino]

pics up!

[Bitter]

did you pinch anything under the cover? its all tight down? the gasket is correctly in place? you cleaned the head and cover well? you used a gasket and not just silicone right?

[tonytutino]

did you pinch anything under the cover? its all tight down? the gasket is correctly in place? you cleaned the head and cover well? you used a gasket and not just silicone right?

1) nope, nothing is pinched 2) yes its nice and tight 3) there was something odd about the gasket though, like when it set inside the valve cover there seemed to be about 1/4 inch of 'excess' gasket. like if you pushed the gasket down into the valve cover it would push up in one little spot. its a felpro one from autozone FTR.
4) i used engine degreaser on the cover to clean it, as for the head... maybe thats my problem? this is my first time doing this so don't laugh, but was i supposed to put the gasket sealer on the head as well? i just put the sealer on the gasket then put the gasket back in the head and bolted it back on...

[Bitter]

if the gasket is the rubber type then, no, extra sealant shouldnt be needed and can be the cause of leaks. you need both gasket mating surfaces to be totally clean and dry when you put the gasket on and it needs to fit well. from what you've said i'd bet that the gasket moved and isnt aligned in a spot allowing oil out. take it off and try again.

[tonytutino]

yeah man i think my valve cover was a still a little wet when i put it back on, that could be the cause of my problems. im gonna run to autozone and pick up the gasket remover and spray the rubber gasket and get the gunk off. that should help, bitter i love you lol.

one more thing: the 4 little sparkplug gaskets? that came in the box, where the hell am i supposed to put those, they dont fit under the valve cover, something is blocking them and its rusted to hell

[shadycrew31]

you need to pull out the old spark plug gaskets and clean out the hole then put the new ones in. I haven't found an easy way to put them back so be patient and work them in enough then bolt down the valve cover.

also when bolting down your going to what to do a cross bolt pattern when you tighten the bottom left a little ways, then the top right, then top left, then bottom right, and keep doing that till its tightened down to torque specs.

[njccmd2002]

what are the torque specs?

[shadycrew31]

I cant get to them right now. You might be able to call the dealer up. sometimes there in the haynes manual to.

[alltracman78]

The moment your oil light came on you should have turned off the engine, checked the oil, and in your case refilled it.

If it's not making any weird noises you probably got lucky.
Normally running it that low on oil and driving around will spin a bearing or seize the engine.

Anyways, here's what you did wrong

1-Always use a cleaner that leaves NO residue. Engine degreaser leaves residue. Brake clean doesn't. Alcohol doesn't.

2-ALWAYS clean BOTH surfaces.

3-You're supposed to use sealant on the corners of the outer cam and dist caps, and on the rubber plugs. Toyota says to use FIPG [OEM sealant that dries in less than an hour]. Black silicone will also work, but takes 24 hrs to fully dry.

FYI the entire gasket isn't going to fit into the groove. Some will be out. That is normal. Don't tighten the nuts too tight or you will deform the gasket, which can cause it to leak.

Oh yeah, and buy a new one to replace that one with if you've sprayed it with sealant and such.

[bufferdan]

It pretty much sounds like the gasket didnt seal. Do it again

This post has been edited by bufferdan: Oct 1, 2007 - 8:49 AM

[tonytutino]

yeah that was the problem... the gasket didn't want to sit right so it bulged up around one of the cams fixed now woop!

well alltrac man the one weird noise is like a knocking sound when i idle, but i'm pretty sure its my power steering pulley since there is no belt on it for now :-/
i'm hoping thats all that is. thanks for the insight man

This post has been edited by tonytutino: Oct 2, 2007 - 7:52 PM

[alltracman78]

I hope it's nothing big.
Could be valve tick [common on Toyotas].

Unlikely it's the pwr steering pulley if there's no belt.
No belt = no movement.
No movement, no noise.

But don't be surprised if it's something engine internal.
If it gets any worse DON'T drive it, and have it looked at.