Valve cover gasket woes

Okay, I'm just venting. It seems that every car I work on has a weepy
valve cover gasket. I've fixed my own in the past using a product
called Hylomar, but I ran out, and I haven't seen it in years(wish I
could buy more....). Hylomar seemed to work pretty good, and chase the
drips away for a long time.

Last June I did a timing belt job on my '97 NA. About 6 months in, the
valve cover gasket was leaking. So I took it apart, cleaned it, and
put in a new gasket; I followed the tightening and torque specs in the
FSM to a T.

2 months later..it's weeping again. It was a 'Perma dry' Felpro gasket
I installed. "Perma-dry" being a blatant lie in my opinion.

Do I need to just silicone the whole damn thing to keep it dry? I
hate...Hate...oil leaks. Especially ones that can migrate down and hit
the exhaust manifold and turn into a nasty smell in the passenger
compartment....

At 105,000 it should not be a big deal to have a dry engine. The oil
pan, front, rear, and cam seals do not leak. I replaced the CAS o-ring
and that area is staying dry. The only thing left is the valve cover,
and it seems to be the only trouble area...

Any tips?


Chris

Hal wrote:
> Okay, I'm just venting. It seems that every car I work on has a weepy
> valve cover gasket. I've fixed my own in the past using a product
> called Hylomar, but I ran out, and I haven't seen it in years(wish I
> could buy more....). Hylomar seemed to work pretty good, and chase the
> drips away for a long time.
>
> Last June I did a timing belt job on my '97 NA. About 6 months in, the
> valve cover gasket was leaking. So I took it apart, cleaned it, and
> put in a new gasket; I followed the tightening and torque specs in the
> FSM to a T.
>
> 2 months later..it's weeping again. It was a 'Perma dry' Felpro gasket
> I installed. "Perma-dry" being a blatant lie in my opinion.
>
> Do I need to just silicone the whole damn thing to keep it dry? I
> hate...Hate...oil leaks. Especially ones that can migrate down and hit
> the exhaust manifold and turn into a nasty smell in the passenger
> compartment....
>
> At 105,000 it should not be a big deal to have a dry engine. The oil
> pan, front, rear, and cam seals do not leak. I replaced the CAS o-ring
> and that area is staying dry. The only thing left is the valve cover,
> and it seems to be the only trouble area...
>
> Any tips?
>
>
> Chris

http://www.hylomar-usa.com/_resources/_html/order.html

On Mar 14, 12:28*am, Hal > wrote:

(MassiveSnippage)

> Do I need to just silicone the whole damn thing to keep it dry?

> Any tips?


On my motorcycle road race engines, we used to always put a real thin
coat of hi-temp silicone on both sides of the valve cover gasket
before installing. Never leaked, but then the gaskets were never
really in place for more than about 50 race miles or so....