I have a very small oil leak from the front valve cover that drips upon braking. Not enough to drop the oil level, but a nuiance. It looks like to replace the gasket, the throttle body and cable, spark plug wires must be removed. Looks like a lot of work. Any easy way to stop the drip?
On the Road
93 GXE 125,000

 

You could try tightening the screws. Sometimes they become loose and cause oil to leak from the valve cover area.

You are correct.. To remove the front valve cover you must remove the wires, upper intake plenum (throttle body, etc.)

Good luck.

 

Matt,
I tried tighten the screws. They seem tight. Possible some dirt is between the gasket and metal. What is the gasket made of -- cork, rubber, silcone rubber. If the its a reusable silicone rubber gasket, I was thinking of spraying cleaner, then lossening the screw and spraying cleaner under cover to clean before tighten. Or it that a losing idea?

 

You can try using slightly thicker oil as well. Perhaps 10w-40 might help you out a bit. You're gonna have to go through the pain of repacing the gaskets eventually. Might as well try and tackle the job while it's nice out

 

I would not want to blow dirt into an engine like that. Unless your trying to damage it.

It should be a rubber gasket. And you should replace it. I tried RTV on the orginal gasket and it was leaking in 8K miles. Just get new nissan gaskets and do it right the first time.

~Alex

 

wow, am I seeing right??

 

Alex thanks for the advise. I has hoping that the gasket could be slipped under without a complete removal of the air pleum and throttle body.

 

I wish it was that easy where you could just slip the gasket in...

appearantly you've never changed em on the max since you thought they could be slipped in. innocence is cute

 

One can only hope. Was thinking that there was a cheater gasket like the crankshaft seal that used a tool to snake it around the saft or other method. How many hours to replace the valve cover gasket, throttle body gasket, air phleum gasket? Any other gasket before I start?
On the Road
93 GXE 127,000 miles

 

First time with the right tools and basic mechanic skills and assuming nothing goes wrong (such as stripped, broken, or anything of that sort) I'd say a good 2-5 hours.

Took me 7 hours my first time but that was because I had a stripped 6mm hex bolt, all vacuum hoses were rotted and needed new clamps. Also didnt know that you had to remove the distributor so thats where most of my time went. Second time doing it took me 3 hours start to stop and that was with on nForces max with the help of Alex V. 3rd time which included changing injectors on gfs maxima= 2 hours start to stop. All depends on you.

so if you're gonna do it, make sure you have spare vacuum hoses, carb cleaner, radiator hose clamps, might help to change your fuel injection hoses/clamps while there if they look bad.

Gaskets at top of my head:
-Plenum (Plentum?)
-Upper Intake Manifold
-2 EGR valve gaskets
-Throttle body gasket (I think its 2)
-2 valve cover gaskets

 

Best method for stopping gasket leak: Remove valve cover, install new gasket, replace valve cover and torque accordingly.

 

meh, JBweld FTW

 

dude, sounds like you've been living around my neighborhood for years lol

 

Thanks for all the advise. Looks like for now, it will be cleaning and retorquing it. I'll wait until there a larger leak or other issue in that area. The cover is likely leaking because the dealer dropped a washer down the spark plug hole and had to remove the head to remove the part that fell into the cylinder.
They didn't charge me for the fix. Possible done under warranty.

 

for some reason i don't remember removing the distributor.
if you want to do the job right you'll also need the rubber washers that's between the metal washer and the screw that's holding the valve cover down. that washer is the part that's wearing away and then you lose the torque on the valve cover to the head.

 

i had to remove distributor to unscrew the screw underneeth it so completely remove valve cover off for power washing. if you know how to get it off without removing the dist I'd really like to know how so I can save some time next time