Hey guys I need some help. I have a 95 SC2. My valve cover gasket keeps blowing. Its good after I just replace it but after a month I'm leaking oil on my exhaust manifold. The next month it got even worse. What can be causing my gasket to blow. I have replaced it 3 time and It keeps doing the same thing. I really don't want to do it again.


Thanks


Scott

 

What type of gasket are you using?


If you're using those cheap cork ones, they usually suck hardcore. If you get the good neoprene ones they usually work. Make sure you are torquing down the valve cover bolts properly, that usually causes the gasket to blow.

 

Never used cork. What should I torque them to? There is a little pressure valve that connects to my intake that is always ticking. Could there be too much pressure inside that pushes my gasket out.

 

what the typical torque for valve covers is i don't know off hand. If you have one of those Hanes guides for how to do pretty much anything on a car, it tells you in there. If you don't have one of those, you could always find out the information online, or you could ask someone who knows quite a bit. (mechanic friend)


Another reason why the gasket could be blowing out is cause of the oil pressure that is in there, but that shouldn't matter. It's mainly set up to allow for so much pressure, plus more. Not all cars maintain the same oil pressure. I would think that the reason for it blowing out is cause of the bolts not being torqued to the right degree. That way, when the pressure builds up in the valve cover, the gasket will blow out, cause of the pressure. It's a common thing.


I believe that it is 10 ft lbs to begin with, and you follow a certain sequence, and then you do the same sequence at 15 ft lbs.


Here's a site that has torque specs for most models and years of S-series saturns.


http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/arc....php/t-44221.h tml

 

hey wspeed... have you noticed any oil in your sparkplug shafts?

 

replace both inner and outer gasket, only use fel pro gaskets

 

So ott... would a bad gasket cause oil to leak into the spark plug shafts?

 

on the sl2 there is a gasket that goes around the outside of the valve cover and then one that goes aroung the inside holes the inside one being bad would cause oil to leak on to the sparkplugs

 

I had oil both on the inside and outside of the spark plug. Some was in the shaft, and some around the threads. Would this be possible?