ok yeah so i was cleaning my engine bay and i got one of those polished valve covers and realized that it was cracked...looked as if someone dropped it or hit it with a hammer..but yeah its got about 4 cracks branching offa it and its leaking oil slightly....

why did this happen....did my mechanic drop it or is there some way that this could happen without being dropped?

 

Something hit it. Has the car ever been wrecked?

 

overtorque the bolts....surprisingly the valve cover bolts only need 8ft/lbs of torque..personally it makes me feel like its gonna just fall off at those pressures but thats what the service manual states *shrug*...he coulda tightened them way too much and it just spider cracked from the stress..

i don't think its this but it coulda got way too hot and cracked..but thats never gonna happen in your engine bay without something else blowing up...

 

Over torque cannot crack the cover. The five chrome top caps are pulled down to a predetermined height, and bottom out on the towers. Over torque would only break the bolt off in the tower.

 

ive never wrecked it

 

Is the polished valve cover made from modified OEM cover or is it a completely after market part? It could just be a quality issue.

 

its the one made from OEM but its been on the car about a year

 

Got a pic?

 

It could have been unseen shipping damage. I bet it is on the one of the corners.

For referance, they are OEM covers that are stripped and polished. They are cast AL.

 

yeah it is in the corner....so what do i do?