smokin ...

[racerx]

When my car is at a stop smoke comes pouring out of the hood from evaporating oil. It appears the oil comes out from the bottom of the valve cover and spills onto the exaust manifold and viola, steamed oil. yum. Anyway, I replaced the valve cover gasket, and that worked for about a day. Then I replaced the valve cover (with another new gasket) and that worked again for about a day or two. Now it's smoking like it's cool. :bh: As you might think, it's really embarrassing.
There's some chips missing of the surface of the head where the gasket sits. Could that be what's causing this? Is there a way to repair it?
Also, should I apply some of that liquid gasket stuff on there? My dad didn't think it was a good idea.............

[racerx]

wtf?? No one had any idea? Not even a mod? Come on people, I know SOMEONE has to have some insight on this...please?

[shepherd79]

here is what you need to do.
when you replace the gasket. make sure you wipe the cylinder head area very good. if there is any oil between gasket and cylinder head, no matter how hard you tighten it will always leak.
So make sure everything is clean and free of oil before you put the new gasket.
the other thing, make sure you don't tighen to more than 7ft . lb (10Nm) it is very small amount, you will have to get small torque wrench.

[Vinny]

And I don't use anything on my valve cover gasket, just clean both surfaces and put it on

[rubberburner]

Well if you have chips on the head surface, your gonna have to fill them. I dunno what you could use tho. Maybe RTV sealant, cuz that's what your supposed to use on the oil pan gasket.

[shepherd79]

you can always apply a very little of gasket maker seal.

[zero.counter]

O.K. there were some thing I have found in my long but faithful ownership of my "Old Gal".

1) Once, some guys at a lube place left the oil filter untightened, causing some massive hemmoraging onto the exhauast. This is why I do it myself now.

2) Valve Cover gasket, when replacing be sure to clean up the are directly below on the outside of the head. If all of the oil is gone and you replace the gasket, drive for a little while. You will know if the gasket is causing makor oil leakage by checking the place you cleaned.

3) The oil pan gasket is notorious for giving way and being a pain in the ass to remove. It is usually a major source for leaking oil.

4) Look underneath the car for anything out of the ordinary. Focus on oil coming from odd places or hols, gashes, and even missing bolts.

[Vinny]

Originally posted by rubberburner
Well if you have chips on the head surface, your gonna have to fill them. I dunno what you could use tho. Maybe RTV sealant, cuz that's what your supposed to use on the oil pan gasket.

You don't use RTV along the whole gasket just at the 4 corners where the crankshaft hump is

[racerx]

Sweet, I'm gonna try all that now. Thanks alot! I bet those crappy oil changers forgot to tighten the damn filter...it's happened to me before too.

[rubberburner]

What the heck does RTV stand for anyways?

[NXRacer]

Originally posted by My Cousin Vinny
You don't use RTV along the whole gasket just at the 4 corners where the crankshaft hump is

thats normally true, but if there are chips on the head like he said, use some to fill the chips, but use sparingly.

[Vinny]

Originally posted by rubberburner
What the heck does RTV stand for anyways?

Room Temperature Vulcanizing sooooo THERE

[Mac]

RTV stands for: Room Temperature Vulcanizing.

[Vinny]

Originally posted by NXRacer
thats normally true, but if there are chips on the head like he said, use some to fill the chips, but use sparingly.

depends on how big or deep they are, might be able to hand smooth them with a scotchbrite pad or something similar if you make sure you have a drop cloth type setup on the inside edge of the head to keep the dust/metal particles out of there

[racerx]

yeah, some are really small (size of the point of a pin) and some are bigger (size of 2 or 3 pin HEADS across)...