Valve cover and spark plug seal/gasket replacement
 

Hello,

Getting ready to do valve adjustment, and almost hitting 100k miles, planing to change the valve cover gasket and spark plug seals,

When re-instaling the valve cover, do I need to lube the seals in anyway before putting putting the valve cover back on? or any material on the valave cover gasket?

You could lube the spark plug tubes at the cylinder hed lightly with engine oil before silding the valve cover over it, otherwise there is no need for any lubricating / sealant on the valve cover casket itself.

I like to put a light layer lube of motor oil on the bottom of the valve cover seal where it mates with the head to help seal better (like you would do to the oil filter seal when changing engine oil/filter).

You oil the seal to make it come off easier not to make it seal better. This way you dont double seal your oil filter and lose all your oil.

I have a 2009, now with 69K miles. I have adjusted the valves at 42K miles and again just after 60K. Actually the valves were okay the second time I looked (just past 60K) and I did not actually adjust them save one. The first time at 42K the valves were definitely tight. According to Billman, I would have torched valves by 65K miles if I had done nothing. I replaced the cover gasket the second time and was going to replace the tube seals as well (had them on hand) but the old seals appeared to be in very good shape so I left them in place.

The first time I did the adjust and buttoned things up, I became concerned I did not pay enough attention to the orientation of the tube seals. When removing the cover it is likely that one or more seal tubes can pull out and become inverted, not unlike a pant leg hanging on to your foot and going inside out. Billman opined and I opened things back up and indeed found a tube not correctly installed. Glad I fixed it.

The following are quotes from Billman concerning the tube orientation:

"Hurting the tube seals is near impossible. Just make sure to push the seal lips back before re-installing cover.

With the cover upside down on the work bench, the 4 tube seals should look like this \/ \/ \/ \/

When you pull the cover, some of them get stuck to the tube, and you will get this \/ \/ /\ /\

The last two have been pulled in the wrong direction. Just push them back down with your finger.

If you don't, you can cut the lip on the tube seal.

You can likely check yours just by pulling the coil packs and inspect them with a bright light. You can see the seal edge around the tube.

I've pulled over 1000 covers, and the chances of the seals inverting is 95%"

End quote.

This thread is a great one for warning on DBW cars having tight valves.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un...1060900/page9/

Good post, I did not do this and ended up cutting a seal around spark plug which lead to oil in there and eventual misfire.

I did a valve adjustment two seasons ago. It was the fist time I had adjusted valves on a motor in 30 years. I was a bit unsure about the tube seals and how they need to be oriented etc. I think I got it put together properly, (I installed new seals), but, I plan to open it up again this spring when the car comes out of storage to check my work. It will be interesting to see if the gaps have changed at all.

I still have a 5 foot high pile of plowed snow at the end of my driveway and there is a ton of snow on the ground here still. It will be at least month before I pull this car out of storage.

Why do I feel like people on these forums take a seemingly simple task that a 10 minute Youtube video could show you how to do and over-complicate it with "what if" scenarios and alternate ways of doing things? Surely there is just 1 simple, proven way to do something instead of "well what I do is ____ "

See my 8 or 9 page "Oil filter question" thread, Jesus.

Don't go to a Jeep forum. Your head would explode.