How difficult? - valve covers

[pontiacgp759]

I'm leaking a fair amount of oil from my front and rear valve cover gaskets. I'm going to go ahead and change them this weekend. Has anyone had any experience changing them? how difficult/how long will it take me? Is there anything I should know? Thanks

[AmericanSoldier]

make sure to scrape all the old gasket away to leave you with a fresh clean surface..rock the motor forward and have it stay there to access the rear easier..so easy a blind person can do it

[matt5112]

scrape gasket? Its a rubber gasket. It should just pull off in one piece.

[nawarkk]

I think he meant the flat surface. The only problem I ran into when replacing my Valve Cover Gaskets was taking of the bracket that's connected to the coil packs. There was a bolt that was very hard to loosen since I couldn't get a socket to it. You have use a wrench and have very little room to work with...

[matt5112]

Clean it up with a towel.

Note, inside lip of that mating surface is sharp, can cut too.

[TorqueAutoMotiv]

You can get to the coil bracket bolt with a spark plug socket that has the hex on the back then use another socket on the sparkplug socket

Other wise its a peice of cake couple hours max if you take your time

[TheOtherNick]

You can get to the coil bracket bolt with a spark plug socket that has the hex on the back then use another socket on the sparkplug socket

Other wise its a peice of cake couple hours max if you take your time

never thought of doing that.

[TorqueAutoMotiv]

Im good at coming up with random ways at doing simple jobs it works good great though

[mystic231]

It's covered under a recall. My '02 GTP was done by a dealer and a have a postcard laying here from GM to get my '98 GT done.

[Warbeaver]

its pretty simple. just some stuff you gotta take off. on a gtp, you take off the alternator, maybe the map bracket, the coil pack bracket, and the dog bones. Beneath the alternator is a bracket that has 3 bolts. You need to take those 3 bolts out. This will enable you to move it a little to slide the valve cover out. You can't move it too far though because the coolant elbow is connected to it. This is how i did mine. I didnt feel like draining coolant and putting on a new elbow just for valve cover gaskets.

Ideally, its better to do valve covers when you do Intake manifold gaskets, cuz everything will be off anyways, and the coolant will already be drained, and you will need new coolant elbows.

If you aren't doing gaskets, just do as said. I have done it twice to install rockers with no problems. And, yes, take a utility blade and scrape the surface of the head where the valve covers go on.