Valve Cover Gasket Problems

[TWHansen]

Well, a friend "fixed" the gasket and now it leaks worse than ever.

Like leaked four quarts over 50 miles.

That's bad.

I dug up my haynes book and it mentions putting little dabs of silicone around the edge. This is probably the problem. Is the blue silicone OK for this?

[atobe]

why not just buy another gasket and replace the spark plug tub gaskets too probbly gonna cost you 30$ in parts and 1 hr in the garage

[Cyorke]

when you pull the valve cover off youneed to pull the half moon plugs on either side of the head and seal those with silicone.

[TWHansen]

this was with a brand new gasket with new spark plug tube seals. I didn't see half moon plugs. It is perhaps possible that this is not the first time the valve cover gasket has been replaced. It's always leaked rather a bit of oil. 212,000 miles.

Don't tell me I'm going to have to buy another $30 gasket...

[Streetglower]

when you installed the gasket, did you torque the valve cover bolts to specs? having them too loose, too tight or torqued/installed in the incorrect order will all cause the new one to leak.

[Cyorke]

The half moon plugs are located at the end of the camshaft. I tried pulling a picture up but the one they have on autozones website inteh repair manual does not show it very well. there was a thread about it on here a couple of weeks ago I will see if I can find it. You can also use the camry repair manual that is stickied at the top of the thread page. IT si for the 92-96 model but it should give you some answers as to what I am talking about. when you take the valve conver off the half moon plugs will be at the end of either camshaft. They are hld in with silicone and over time the silicone may have broken down and not sealing well now.

As for what type of silicone I would probably stick with at least the black RTV. From the factory most everything taht Toyota puts silicone on is either black or grea. I dont think the blue is high temp enough

[es250nut]

Little bit of personal experience...
Had a buddy who had his valve cover gasket replaced and it leaked more after the replacement then before. Turns out the mechanic who replaced the gasket overtorqued the 4 spark plug tube nuts (30mm) and ended up warping the valve cover itself. The reccomended torque is not very much, something like 5 to 8 ft/lbs.
Fortunately for my buddy, I happened to have another valve cover.

[fredk]

when i worked at toyota in 88-89 there was a big deal as to tightening the 4 big nuts holding the valve cover, believe it or not the best way we tried was simply grabbing the 30mm socket with your hand and tighten her up, now the tip is that as the o ring shrinks the nuts will become loose, just tighten them up again, i have taken mine off my fe motors with my fingers and not needed a socket many times

[TWHansen]

We have fixed the problem! I wound up using the blue silicone as I had it handy, it's working just fine for now.

Incidentally, I managed to find the factory torque specs for the valve cover nuts: 17 ft./lbs. This is referenced from some other thread on the 3SGTE, which I imagine torques the same.

Next you guys get to help me fix the power steering on the '90 Lexus ES250 I just bought for a hundred bucks!

[fredk]

no problem, i do it every day