Changing Valve Cover Gaskets

[miksax]

Hey guys-
My '91 has leaky valve cover gaskets and I'd like to change them this week. I have and have used the Chilton's and Hayne's books for some other small jobs, but this will be my "biggest" attempted job. I was wondering if anyone can give me any helpful suggestions for the install in addition to the books. (which gaskets to use, tips on removing the intake and all the other stuff). Thanks for your help.

Mike

 

[bubba-dough]

Get some good valvecover gaskets, not the cheap cork ones. I use the rubber ones with the metal middle. If it has the original valve cover gaskets, be careful when removing them as there are tiny pieces of metal (stops) under the lip of the valvecover. Make sure you get them all and you don't leave any laying on the head. These are there to prevent over-tightening. Also you don't really need to completely remove the upper intake. Just unbolt it and you can move it around out of the way. This will save you from having to remove vacuum lines and etc. And you should replace the upper to lower intake gasket, throttle body to egr gasket, egr to upper intake gasket as long as you are in there. Other than that its pretty straight foward.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Just a tidbit of info, if you opt for the rubber gaskets, don't over tighten them, or they'll actually squish out from between the head and valve cover, so take your time and lightly torque them each one a little at a time. I believe the 5.0 Exploror gaskets come with the metal/rubber, you might buy them specifically.

 

[kornchild4life]

Like it has been said, don't get the cheapo gasket. Get the ford made one, has rubber and i guess its like metal in it. Easy way to change the valve cover gaskets disconnect the intake tube (depending on what you have like CAI or the stock line) then just unbolt the upper intake manifold and that gives you enough room to be able to take the covers off and to change the gasket. Little tip when putting the gasket back on, get thin string and tie it onto the valve cover itself just tight enough that you can put it back into place and that you can cut the string after you start to put some bolts in. Make sure you dont over tighten the bolts when you put them back in, i don't fully remember but i think its something like 10-20lb-ft for the valve cover, and between 20-25lb-ft for the intake manifold, don't forget to change the gasket for the upper intake manifold too. Good Luck with it, should be about 2 hours or so job give or take a little bit for how fast you work and what not

 

[HISSIN50]

Seems to me that, like Bubba mentioned, there are ferrules in the valve cover bolt bosses which prevent overtorquing. Neat gaskets.

I think Fel Pro has their own version avl at parts stores (rubber over metal).

Good luck.

 

[sgarlic]

My advice is to remember how the spark plug wires seperators are placed in there on the bolts.. take pictures if it'll help. If you mess with the routing of the the wires, and end up crossing some around, you may end up with a nasty misfire condition. This happened on my wife's Jeep. Maybe Ford's aren't as picky about routing, but Chrysler's are.