Valve cover re-seal

[gabedrummin]

What would be a fair price to re seal a valve cover ? How hard is it to do yourself ? Got a quote of 747.72 seems high maybe I'm wrong.

[dsallean]

Its a pain but you can do it yourself. When I did it I had the front engine mount out and the engine supported from above with a cross bar so I was able to move the engine over for each side to give me enough room to remove/install the cover and bolts and torque them to spec. I used the recommended sealant.

If I had to do it again I would seriously consider just paying someone to do it.

Dave

[The Radium King]

i had a valve cover leak. re-torqued all the fasteners (in the recommended order) and leak went away.

[Racer Boy]

It's a more involved job than you would think. There aren't regular valve covers that bolt to the cylinder head (like on most every other car made), it's more as if the top half of the cylinder head is bolted to the lower half, and that is called the valve cover by Porsche.

[JFP in PA]

The price quoted is not out of line. With the engine still in the car, this is a time consuming operation. Cam plugs have to come out, cam holding tool installed, all plugs, plug tubes (on engine's so equipped), and coil packs removed. Pull the cam cover, and scrupulously clean the mating surfaces, apply a minuscule bead of the correct sealant (not Permatex), reseat the cover and correctly torque the cover bolts, reinstall everything you removed.

Not difficult, but a lot of time spent, and we would automatically put new plug tubes and seals in engine's that use them.

[dsallean]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

The price quoted is not out of line. With the engine still in the car, this is a time consuming operation. Cam plugs have to come out, cam holding tool installed, all plugs, plug tubes (on engine's so equipped), and coil packs removed. Pull the cam cover, and scrupulously clean the mating surfaces, apply a minuscule bead of the correct sealant (not Permatex), reseat the cover and correctly torque the cover bolts, reinstall everything you removed.

Not difficult, but a lot of time spent, and we would automatically put new plug tubes and seals in engine's that use them.

JFP - oops, I said Permatex by mistake. I used Loctite 5900

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by dsallean

JFP - oops, I said Permatex by mistake. I used Loctite 5900

The most common failures we see with DIY versions of this are too much sealant used, or the wrong sealant used. Either one ends up with a "do over"...….

[robdelorenzo]

JFP - your insights are so valuable.
Thank you for being on this forum!

[steved0x]

In the history sheets for my car I noticed that it had "valve cover gasket replaced" - which I figure is the process above. A few years back I went to install the X-51 baffle in my oil sump, and this is what I found:



Once I started doing UOA with blackstone I have had high silicone readings, I think because there are still a few remnants of this floating around somewhere. Not the recommended sealant (which is black) and way too much. I wish I had taken more pictures, in addition to what was here there were a few larger ones that were just sitting in the bottom of the pan... Don't use too much sealant!