I haven't seen very many detailed 4th generation Maxima valve cover gasket installation guides. I was having issues with oil damaging my spark plugs because the spark plug grommet seals were leaking oil. These are replaced as part of the valve cover gasket installation.

What you need:
Permatex Black/Ultrablack RTV Gasket Sealant
Felpro or other brand gasket with spark plug grommets
Brake and Parts Cleaner
Shop Rags

Total Time: ~3 hours
I also replaced the sparkplugs while I was at it, because two of mine were damaged from the oil.

First of all, remove the negative battery cable from the negative terminal.
Next, use a #4 allen wrench to remove the spark plug/coil pack cover. Remove the coil pack cover. Remove the coil packs using a screwdriver or a socket wrench. Be careful not to strip the heads on these screws. Remove the coil pack wiring harness (the black plastic harness will pull out of the holes it sticks in).



Remove the two breather hoses, there is one in the upper left and one on the right side. The right side one had some kind of clip. The easiest way to remove is to use a pliers to supress the clip, then use a screw driver to push from one side and your hand to pull from the other to get it off the barb.

Next, remove the ten bolts that hold the valve cover on. There is very little force needed on these bolts. These bolts are 10mm socket if I recall correctly.

I would recommend at this point removing and discarding the rubber grommets and metal washers that are on these bolts and replacing them with the ones from the Felpro kit.

Next, remove the valve cover. This should be fairly easy, just pry it off. Mine came off without any effort.





Using a screw driver, rags, a scrap piece of dowel, etc, remove the old gasket from the valve cover.
Clean the mating surfaces of the cover free of the old sealant. This takes awhile. This took about an hour for me. I used brake and parts cleaner and a lot of old rags.


Pry out the old spark plug grommets using a screw driver. This can be annoying at first. From the inside of the cover, take the screw driver's flat head and stick it inside the grommet, then rock it free.

Then, clean the mating surfaces of the upper engine. Use a rag and a tiny bit of cleaner to wipe the surface clean. Also, make sure to clean the raised area on the left.


Clean the spark plug area where the new grommets will go.
Next, insert the new spark plug grommets into the holes. Make sure you put them right side up so they resemble the way the old grommets went. I used a rubber mallet to gently tap the grommets into the valve cover.

Test fit the new gasket to get an idea of how it will go and look for problem areas, such as the left side.

Then, insert smoothly a thin bead of RTV sealant into the gasket groove on the valve cover. Apply a thin bead of RTV sealant across the left area of the engine where I mentioned above to wipe.

Insert the new valve cover gasket into the groove, pressing evenly to disperse the RTV.

Place the valve cover onto the upper engine. Put the 10 bolts on in the order of the Chilton guide:1 middle lower left, 2 middle upper left, 3 middle lower right, 4 middle upper right, 5 far left lower, 6 far left upper, 7 far right lower, 8 far right upper, 9 far left middle, 10 far right middle.

Do not over tighten.

There are two torque specs assigned. First, torque to 1-3 Nm or 9-26 inch/lbs in the above order. Next, torque to 5.4-7.4 Nm or 48-65 inch/lbs in the above order.

Replace the breather hoses. Now is a good time to put the new spark plugs in. Torque specs on the plugs are 20-29 Nm or 14-22 Ft/Lbs. The Gap is .043 inch or 1.1 mm.
Replace the coil pack wiring, then replace the coil packs, reconnect the wires to the coil packs. Place the coil pack cover on. Reattach the negative cable to the negative terminal on the battery.

Allow the sealant to cure for a full 24 hours.

Start the car and check for oil leaks.

Congratulations!

 

Please add link to the sticky or whatever if you think this would be helpful thanks

 

FWIW the torque specs and sequence on the valve cover bolts is largely irrelevant, just don't break them off.

Also, no RTV is needed between the valve cover and the gasket, just the gasket and the cam cover/head (although a few spots helps hold the gasket in place during assembly).

 

Okay theres a first for everything

If it leaks, ill redo!

 

Sweeeeeeet!!

 

just curious did this really take you 3 hours to do, reason i ask is i have done this is abt 30-40 minutes,

Very nice writeup for anyone doing it themselves

 

May have taken around 2.5 hours. The big problem was getting the old gunk out. Scraping the old sealant off took at least 75% of the time, probably because I was paranoid about making it as clean as possible.

 

you must be the previous owner of my 4th gen then.

 

must be nice... you must have small hands

 

How do you figure?

Also forgot to add that waiting 24 hours for the RTV to cure is somewhat ridiculous, I've never had a problem giving it virtually no time at all. Slap on the oil pan, by the time you get all of the bolts tightened down, fill it up with oil and no leaks.

 

That's becuase you're pmohr and nothing Max related fox with you. It fox with everyone else though - I had a mechanic do mine a while back and it started leaking a few weeks later. Now I'm going to get it done myself since it seems simple enough. It may have been that he screwed it up in some other way, but I've been blaming the leak on the ultrablack not having cured long enough. Who knows? It may have been the gremlins again.

It does say on the package to let it cure 24 hours.

 

It should not take more than 45 min to do this job. There is really no diy on this because of the simplicity.

 

Not everyone can do this without reading up on it. The pictures help aswell. Not all of us are mechanics. There should be a maintenance sticky?

 

I'm gonna disagree with that statement and I'm pretty mechanically inclined. Unless you half *** through everything... I've done valve cover gaskets on several Maximas/other cars and I believe I'm very efficient when working on cars except I'm very **** about everything being cleaned up and neat..

The job itself IS simple but its more of a "time consuming" simple.

 

Nice writeup ... Thanks

 

This will help alot of people out.

 

Great write up. Sticky?

 

Very nice!

 

Good write-up. We need this in 5th gen...

 

I agree that it can be time consuming and I also agree that having a sticky on this can help alot of people, but at the same time, some people may be scared from trying because of the time frame that some are saying it takes. Just like on CAI I think I was reading where it is supposed to take like 2 hours or something. That is insane, I don't believe in spending all day on stuff that does not take a lot of time doing. It does not have to be half a** just because it gets done in a timely manner.

 

Good write up, I think you forgot a step though. Whatever happen to taking off the Upper intake manifold and the rear valve cover. Three hours maybe if you are doing both valve covers.

 

What do you mean what happened to it? If you read the thread title, this writeup is specifically for the FRONT valve cover gasket.

The only steps he 'forgot' are the ones that don't apply to this writeup.

 

+1 for a good write-up for early beginners, nothing wrong with taking your time. i just did both my covers in an hour 15 a week ago. 4 bolts holding on UIM FTW.
this would have been great for me a year ago when i had didnt even know if my maxima had a carb....

 

nice write up. I found that using the end of a hammer that takes the nails out to be the most efficient in taking those sparkplug groments off. I almost took off a good part of my hand trying to take it off using a screw driver and what not.

 

Good writeup. I figured it was pretty easy, but mechancics would charge 200+ bucks for something that takes a lil time and patience.

I jus wish i had a indoor garage. Would hate to get any leaves in my engine hehe

 

I like.Great write-up. Pictures do it for me too.

 

ok what about the back valve cover gaskets

 

Exactly the same as the front. Just have to remove the UIM first.

 

you should prob do one for the back then.

 

yea u should do one for the back it would help out alot

 

now do the rear one too

 

Good write-up. Pics definitely help. BTW, where's the cheapest place to get a good front gasket set? Kragen's wants $50 and Pep Boys $60. Thanks!

 

Any problem with applying a little Loctite to the valve cover fasteners, especially the rear lower ones?

And I noticed there was no RTV sealant applied at the factory in the valve cover channels -- are you sure that's really needed?

 

...why would you put thread locker on the VC bolts? You don't need any.

By the 'valve cover channels', do you mean where the gasket sits in the valve cover itself? No, it's not needed, but it helps hold the gasket in place during installation.

 

My rear lower fasteners were pretty darn loose, hence leakage. Since their torque spec is pretty light I thought a spot of Loctite would help to keep them from backing out (again).

 

My Manual only recommends a 30 minute wait on the silicon gasket for the oil pans. It worked fine the several times I replaced it trying to find a higher leak. Funny since it takes me about 2.5 hours to get the pans back on.

 

Back is pretty much the same as the front. I thought I'd throw a link in to ATTappman's awesome how-to on removing the UIM to help out (below).
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...im-w-pics.html

 

I second that. Nissan quoted me $350 to do both front and rear gaskets, and the whole process plus spark plug replacement only took me ~3 hours. That's pretty good since I don't make near $116 per hour lol .

 

Just did front & back last week. Took me about 5 hours.

 

Hi guys. Can somebody do me a favor and send or post a pic of the spark plug cable routing on the front valve cover?

I've taken pics up the kazoo of the rest of the parts but probably thought that area was too obvious to need any, but now with my CRS kicking in the correct routing/positioning escapes me.

Thanks for your help.

Gary

gdmastro @ roadrunner . com