Valve cover gasket leak- how hard to fix?

Got a valve cover gasket leak. How important to fix? It’s not losing much oil. How hard is it to fix?

 

It's not bad, just pull the upper intake and coilpacks.

I'd replace them just to keep the oil from dripping on the exhaust.

 

Not hard to fix, upper intake manifold has to be removed to do the driver's side but that's not hard.
If it's leaking externally odds are the spark plug tube seals are leaking too which will eventually cause a misfire if they get too much oil built up in them.

 

Not hard.
Doesn’t matter if it’s not leaking badly. It’s leaking. Why would you not fix a leak that is cheap and easy to fix?

any other vehicle needs valve cover gaskets at 100k miles. The V6 uses valve cover gaskets just like any other car. It’s not magical fairy dust material that lasts forever.

You let one oil leak slide. Next thing you know you have a second from the power steering line or more. And oil everywhere. Making it that much harder to diagnose exactly which component is leaking to determine a repair.

it’s like putting off class homework to the last day and all of a sudden it’s a lot of homework to do at the same time

 

Double click with a torque wrench might solve it. If not, Fel-Pro gasket & clean the mating surfaces well. As Alex said, it's not bad.

 

usually not. If a gasket is bad, old, worn out and dry/brittle no longer sealing, torque wrench is not gonna do much

if you plan to upgrade the cam gears resealing it is required anyway

 

Unless you have a good torque wrench that does In/Lbs, a torque wrench might do more harm than good. Cheap torque wrenches and low torque bolts just aren’t a risk I’m willing to take.

I’d being doing them by hand/feel.

 

I agree. It was just a cheap fix for the OP. Yeah, fix it right. It's not hard to do. Self explanatory

 

You’re suggestion wasn’t a bad one.
The problem is, some of them can be hard to remove.
They can literally break off when removing them. Easy does it on this job

 

Yes, be very careful. I have Snap-On torque wrenches, which are pretty accurate. Who knows, LOL. Cheers, I'm done.

 

As long as you don't live in the rust belt you should be ok, if you live in the rust belt however you may need some heat, penetrating oil, and patience to get them off.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/need-assistance-valve-cover.740040/

Video below shows what's involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUzL8EOWnY0

 

Just be sure to use RTV where the head and timing cover meet.
See blue arrows in phot below. The upper one “crack” is cover by the harness.

 

Yeah, I know not too long ago. A member here had a hard timing with his.
I think the simple job turned in to a whole weekend job just getting the broken bolt out.

I just can’t remember who it was?

 

It was @Knute I posted the link to his thread above.

 

Yeah, that was the one.
I remember thinking he had “my luck”.
The easy stuff never goes easy for me.

 

I thought it was a very easy removal. I did it because I was swapping cam gears, but the valve covers were a walk in the park imo.

How important? I dunno. I think these kinda things bother me mentally more than anything else. For instance, my 49 chevy leaks power steering fluid, oil, and coolant. Instead of fixing those, I chose to fix my leaky valve covers because I hated seeing it every time I popped the hood.

Besides, if it's leaking fluid, I know theres some in there. It's when it stops leaking that I need to worry

 

Can a bad PCV valve cause this type of leak?

 

Possibly. Take the oil cap off and Is hold a piece of paper or rubbber glove over the fill neck with the engine running. A normal amount of crank-case vacuum should be present gently sucking the paper in. If its blowing out then yes look at pcv valve.

Excessive pressure can also be caused by piston ring-blow by though

But don't overthink it, usually valve covers leak because the gasket just shrinks and gets hard

 

It *might* exasperate it, but it won't *cause* it.

 

Hey Billy, been awhile. I agree. Just replace the gaskets & be done with it.