valve cover leak GT-91 stang

[gerzen]

hi recently i swap mi heads and intake to my stang, i put an a GT-40P heads and a explorer upper and lower intake, also i use a bran new gaskets for all the swap also i change the valve covers gasketes, but las week i theardown the tranny for make some modifications, and i replace the rear main seal, because it was leaking, but now the car keep leaking oil i check it and see that the valve cover in the driver side have a little loose one bolt, and was the guilty for the leak, y bolt it but it was to late, the leak continues, so heres my question, why the valve cover becomes to leak with a less than 4 months of change it?, and for put a new valve cover gasket in that side, i need to remove the intake? or is enough space to remove the valve cover and bolted again without removing the intake? and finally what kind of gasket do you recomeder me? what kind of material?

 

[frcefedlx]

If they are cork ditch them for the OEM style. I had to continuously retighten with the cork but now I have the Trick Flow with the metal in them and all is good.

 

[gerzen]

so i just need to retighten? or i need to change it?

 

[Foxfan88]

+1 on ditching the POS cork gasket. i got a set of felpro blue silicone/metal gaskets or whatever they call them. they are NICE, i have had them off and on like 5-6 times, a quick wipe off then i throw them back on, and they never leak.

 

[gerzen]

ok thats sweet so put and a metal and silicon material seems the way to go

 

[NKau]

Also, inspect the valve cover to be sure there aren't pits/divots on the mating surface. I had to put a little silicon on both of mine under the corners to keep them from leaking.

 

[gerzen]

thanks Nick that is a great tip, i will do that, i suspect something like that is happend now and that´s the reason of why are now leaking.

well this weekend im going to do that, the anoyance thing is remove the upper intake, by the way do i need to put a new plenum intake gasket when i reasemble my upper intake? or can i use the same that all ready have? how much torque in the valve covers and the upper intake i need to use?

 

[NKau]

You'll need a new upper to lower intake gasket. They always tear when you remove the upper intake. Be sure to really clean the old gasket off of the upper/lower intake mating surfaces so you don't get leaks when you install the new gasket.

Don't overtorque your valve covers, or you will bend/warp them. You should be able to put them on 'hand tight' and not have them leak. As far as the intake torque specs, I think it's about 18 ft/lbs, but you better look that up.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

You have 2 options....1, go to the parts store and get Felpro gaskets for a '98 Explorer 302, or go to Ford and get them from there. Either way you want the latest 302 Explorer gaskets (ask specifically for them and don't even mention Mustang) because they're the silicone-over-metal gaskets and will last forever unless you screw them up. They're a little expensive but you won't regret it. You'll never have another VC leak again.

 

[talladam]

A set of valve cover studs would be a good idea too. I run studs on my 90 crown vic, 89 mustang and 90 gmc. Nothing has loosened up yet.

Adam

 

[gerzen]

thanks guys for all your responses, im going to find that explorer gaskets, and use it, i hope resolve my leak trouble this weekend.

thanks again

 

[5.0 Nostalgia]

+1 on the studs. The cork gaskets suck. When I got my car in 02, it had brand new cork gaskets. Within a year or two, they had oil all over them.

Upper to lower intake is 12-18 lbs (go on the high side of that range). I think I tightened my valve covers to about 12lbs. I wouldn't go much tighter.

 

[gerzen]

thanks for the info about the torque, and like every body said, the way to go is the metal/silicone gaskets, like you 5.0 Nostalgia said, i pu the cork gasket just a 4 months a go and well now they are leaking big time.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

The cool thing about the metal gaskets is you can't over tighten them...they have metal reinforced bolt holes so unless you just crush the crap out of them you don't really need to torque them.......i don't.

 

[talladam]

yeah the torque limiters in the silicone (blue felpros) rock. no over torquing them.