valve cover gaskets?

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

I realize that the issue of leaking valve cover gaskets is nothing new, but honestly I haven’t had too much experience with it. On our rebuilt 2.9 Liter there are all new gaskets, Felpro to be exact we have a mysterious leak that appears at the base of the bell housing right below the inspection cover for the flywheel. We just did pull the engine again to replace the rear main seal and the oil filter adaptor. Could this be coming from the valve cover gaskets? I so very much want to get this leaking settled. They are felpro gaskets for the valve covers, but they’re the black rubber not the blue ones. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

please, we need some insight on this

 

[mjonesjr]

I would be interested to know also. Mine has a leak from somewhere, but the rear main seal looked perfect when I took the transmission out.

 

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

I would be interested to know also. Mine has a leak from somewhere, but the rear main seal looked perfect when I took the transmission out.

And I even used the heavy duty version of the rear main seal from Felpro

 

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

I would be interested to know also. Mine has a leak from somewhere, but the rear main seal looked perfect when I took the transmission out.

Dose the leak appear right with the engine and transmission meet? I realize that you have a manual tranny.

 

[mjonesjr]

Yea there and off the oil filter.

 

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

Yea there and off the oil filter.

I'm right there with you....as common as the valve cover lead is, I'm surprise nobody has responded yet...what type of gaskets do you have on now?

 

[mjonesjr]

The factory ones.

 

[Psychopete]

It's possible that the leaking is coming from there, is it a constant leak or does it eventually stop? Are you getting the bolts "snug", then torquing them to spec once the engine is warm?

The only time I've had the black gaskets leak was when I reused them...

I am going to try and get those FMS valve covers ripped off, cleaned up, and checked out on Wednesday, but I will let you know either way (if you're still interested in them).

Pete

Edit: Were your heads cut down or anything that would cause bad alignment from the lower intake and the head? It's common for me to put a dab of RTV in spots like that, but I can't recall if I had done that on mine or not.. My heads were milled .030" and I needed to have the lower milled for proper alignment of the lower intake to the heads..

 

[IMenriched]

Could it be...It MIGHT, be leaking from the a bad O-ring on the base of the distributor??

OR the bronze gasket from the oil filter mount housing...the center nut...be leaking??

 

[mjonesjr]

I know all of my gaskets are stock. The engine has 73,000 original miles on it.

Mine didn't start leaking until I started using Motorcraft synthetic blend on it (since you can't get straight oil in Motorcraft). I guess I will have to go back to straight dyno oil.

 

[CraigK]

An oil leak from the back of the valve cover will eek down the side of the motor and oil will drip from the filter area and the bell housing area. I have used the Felpro regular gaskets (new), and my leaks did not stop until I replaced these with the blue/expensive Felpro gaskets.

CraigK

 

[BRO1]

Does anyone have a part number for the new blue Felpro gaskets?
Thanks
BRO1

 

[WhiteBroncoII2WD]

It's possible that the leaking is coming from there, is it a constant leak or does it eventually stop? Are you getting the bolts "snug", then torquing them to spec once the engine is warm?

The only time I've had the black gaskets leak was when I reused them...

I am going to try and get those FMS valve covers ripped off, cleaned up, and checked out on Wednesday, but I will let you know either way (if you're still interested in them).

Pete

Edit: Were your heads cut down or anything that would cause bad alignment from the lower intake and the head? It's common for me to put a dab of RTV in spots like that, but I can't recall if I had done that on mine or not.. My heads were milled .030" and I needed to have the lower milled for proper alignment of the lower intake to the heads..

Absolutely, I'm still interested

 

[mjonesjr]

I guess I will be replacing the valve cover gaskets soon, probably this weekend.