Seconded.

Kind of like I have yet to find a 2 piece pan so replacing ours isnt such a PITA.
lol

Edit: that was a second to the RTV comment. not Williams. lol

 

I think you'd still have to lift the engine some; pan would only drop a couple inches; not enough to really clean off the old RTV and run a nice even bead.

Maybe one day someone will make a gasket. The first gen DOHC (and all the SOHC) Saturns had aluminum valve covers with just RTV for the gasket. You'd go into the store, and the "gasket kit" would literally be a set of grommets for the bolt holes and a tube of RTV. The aftermarket finally got smart and started offering a pre-formed gasket; several dollars more, but a LOT less work/hassle. Instantly popular.

 

Ok so I got halfway done with replacing the glow plugs and ran into a problem. On the passenger side second cylinder from the front the glow plug is super difficult to turn. The 5 before it came out easy. I left it in for fear of the tip breaking off and causing me to spend money I don't have. What should I do? I'm not sure what it feels like when the tip gets stuck. And if I leave only that one in and it's bad will the rest still work? And the ones that are coming out are motor craft too

 

The tip is probably swelled....

The rest will work if you leave that one in. If you decide you would rather get it out, just keep turning it and pulling up gently. If it is going to come at all, it will come eventually by this method. If it doesn't it either needs to stay in there or the head comes off to remove it...

 

Well I left that one in and they still don't work. I think it's my gp controller. I only hear 2 fast clicks when I turn the key forward. As far as the oil leak goes I'm gonna take it to the car wash today and completely power wash my under side so I can tell where it's coming from. Then I was thinking I could put a uv dye in my oil an scope it out through a black light

 

You probably need a Glow plug relay... You can test it with a meter or a test light. Yous should have battery power at both large lugs on it when the key in in the run position. At least you should for the first minute or two after you turn the key on.

I don't know if the UV dye would be necessary or if I would recommend putting anything like that into the oil in one of these trucks. The injections system uses engine oil to run the injectors so they're pretty picky about putting additives in the oil. I would just wash it down good and then watch for the spot that gets oily first.

 

While the Glow Plug Relay is on, if you measure the volts on the 2 big posts, and get anything more than .1 or.2 volts your glow plug relay is suspect.

 

as for that one stuck glow plug, are you sure your socket wasn't getting jammed against the rocker arm? i just did my GP's and pulled 8 autolites (phew!) out without any issues, though i thought one was stuck. turned out the adjacent rocker arm was opening its valve on this cylinder and my 1/4" driver 10 mm deep set socket was binding against it with the GP threads still engaged. i just ground away at the back of the socket, tried again and it came right out.

whatever the case, though, if it were me, i wouldnt wrestle with that passenger side valve cover again for just GP. and yes, all the GPs are in parallel, so one (or seven, as was the case with my truck before last weekend) dead GP won't affect the functioning ones.

on a related note - has anyone here found their old glow plugs to be super-loose? a few of mine weren't even hand tight. i wonder if it was just a really dumb/weak previous owner, or if they can actually work themselves loose. i swear, i might even have more power now that i have 8 tight ones in - like i was loosing compression into the valve cover. though i didnt seen any evidence of significant compression/combustion under the valve cover...

 

I noticed 1 of mine were. I just put a socket and exstension on it and thumbed it out. And I didn't really have a problem with the passenger side valve cover. The two in the back I got with a short 1/4" drive. And I'm sure the one's threads were stuck I double checked. And I cleaned everything off I'm gonna check it in the morning. It drips every 2-3 seconds even when it's just sitting in the driveway