Just noticed this week I've got a small oil leak on the Cobra clone. Oil is collecting on the lip of the passenger valve cover, and dripping on to the exhaust header. I'm going to check it out this weekend, so I was hoping you guys could give me a list of things to look at. Here's a photo to show what I'm talking about.
A bit of detective work brought up the following:
* I don't see oil residue anywhere else, nothing on the firewall or on the transmission.
* One of the plug wires is soaked in oil, but the others seem to be OK.
* I was about 2/3 of a quart low. This is the first oil change on this engine that the level's been low.
* Before I installed the Cobra engine, I replaced the valve cover gaskets with the blue rubber Fel-Pro gaskets. So the gaskets are 4 years old.
The only place I can think that the oil could be leaking from is the valve cover bolt holes. Maybe they're not torqued down? I'd love any ideas anyone has.
A bit of detective work brought up the following:
* I don't see oil residue anywhere else, nothing on the firewall or on the transmission.
* One of the plug wires is soaked in oil, but the others seem to be OK.
* I was about 2/3 of a quart low. This is the first oil change on this engine that the level's been low.
* Before I installed the Cobra engine, I replaced the valve cover gaskets with the blue rubber Fel-Pro gaskets. So the gaskets are 4 years old.
The only place I can think that the oil could be leaking from is the valve cover bolt holes. Maybe they're not torqued down? I'd love any ideas anyone has.
It looks like the valve cover might be over torqued and it's deformed the valve cover. You're definately going to have to remove the valve cover. Pull it off, see if the gasket is bad, and straighten the valve cover if it needs it. Clean it up and put it back together.
Kurt
Kurt
UPDATE: I finally had a chance to check into the oil leak. Kurt is likely right that the valve cover is tweaked a bit, but it turns out that bolt was loose - I could turn it with my fingers. I checked on all the valve cover bolts I could reach (on both sides), and they were all loose to some degree. I tightened them all down to torque specs (71-106 in-lbs, about 6-9 ft-lbs), and we'll see if the leaks continue. I'll need to pull off the intake manifold at some point to get to the upper valve cover bolts, but this should be good enough for now.
Yeah looks tweaked. Use Felpro Perma-dry if you never want to see leaks. But straighten that valve cover first.