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Hello- recently I was looking down in the engine bay and noticed a small oil leak coming from the passenger side near the back of the engine. I cleaned it up and after pressing and feeling noticed some oil seeping out of the cover (see pics below). I am a very amateur mechanic, more determined then skilled, so could someone let me know the correct way to fix the leak- i'm guessing a new gasket? Any guidance would be appreciated as well! Thanks- Spencer
after pressing on the cover I noticed some oil coming out of where the cover meets the engine. seepage when pressed!
Have you tried to tighten the bolts for the valve cover? And all are in place? The one in the rear can be a bear sometimes.This would be my first line of attack. The gaskets have an o-ring type seal in them, but that is not to say they can't go bad.
Thank you, i will try to tighten down the bolts again. Maybe loosen them all up and tighten all together to seat the cover properly. I’ll do that tonight and let you know how it goes!
Gearwrench 80311 is a great tool set. Also very useful for uppipe fasteners and to R&R the turbocharger. Seriously, just buy the set. Having the correct tool for the job makes work fast.
Alright so last weekend I opened up the hood and loosened then re tightened all of the bolts holding the valve cover on, but still couldn’t get it to stop leaking. I feel like there is something preventing it from being tightened down all the way, a previous reply said something about stud nuts that need to be removed? I guess next move would be to replace the gasket?
There is one on the drivers side rear, not sure about the passenger side. Best way to tell is to feel back there and if you feel threads at the top there should be a nut on it. Remove the nut, carefully. Using a deep socket you can now tighten the stud which is part of the existing threaded assembly. Kinda like a thread - nut - thread, all one unit. This combination usually secures some sort of cable clamp but my truck didn't have one attached so I eliminated putting the extra nut on top. Hope that makes some sense.
Only studs I recall on the passenger side are on the dipstick. If you fart around with that, I would at least replace that blue o-ring for the metal pipe into the pan. Driver side has some at the back by the firewall, a few on the top for the CCV pipe, and I think one more for the engine harness.
Your cover can easily be warped. Take it inside and set on a flat surface to verify. Also, remove the vacuum reservoir from the evap box. Two or three 8mm head screws, makes life much easier.
If pulling a cover, do a quick glow plug test with a test light. I would consider pulling one to verify it is a ZD-11 unit. Yes, repairs on these snowball out of control...but you are dealing with a 25 year old truck.
Alright so last weekend I opened up the hood and loosened then re tightened all of the bolts holding the valve cover on, but still couldn’t get it to stop leaking. I feel like there is something preventing it from being tightened down all the way, a previous reply said something about stud nuts that need to be removed? I guess next move would be to replace the gasket?
Also don't forget their is lots of wiring inside the valve cover to provide power to the injectors and glow plugs. It's quite possible one of the wires inside the cover is on the cover gasket preventing it from tighten down. Best solution here is to remove the valve cover and inspect. The passenger side is a bear to get out without removing other stuff but you can get it high enough to feel back in there for a feel inspection.
01-07-2019, 06:39 PM
