I've had my cover off several times, and have always reused the gasket. I inspect it every time, but have yet to see any reason to replace it. So far, no signs of any oil leaks.

You probably won't find a problem, so far I haven't, but given the potential for major engine damage it just makes sense to take the time to take a look.

 

My dealer quoted me 6 hours labor and the cost of the new AP2 retainers to replace them. I'm not sure you would see any visual indicators necessarily if a retainer was damaged--for instance the damage and weakness could be on the underside against the spring seat, which would not be visiable.

Given the comparative costs, I would think replacing the retainers in the event of a massive overrev would be cheap insurrance.

 

Worst advice so far in this thread.

Sorry, but there have been NUMEROUS members who have done exactly this, and gone about their way with the same lacadaisical attitude. Then 4 months later, WHAM, piston to valve contact from the retainer they cracked 4 months previously from their overrev in which the car seemed fine. And there are others who have done this and had nothing bad every happen.



Bottom line, you overreved no matter how you look at it. You have 2 choices.

A. spend $150 to get the retainers checked (or do it yourself if you know what to look for) You could even get a valve job while they're under there for a few bucks more, and save some cash.

B. risk that you may or may not have to spend thousands of dollars later on because you wanted to save $150 after a mechanical overrev.


I'll take option A. thank you. Be safe about it. don't just assume it's fine. Especially going into 1st gear at 60mph. That's a pretty decent overrev, no matter how much you did or didn't spin out.

 

Exactly. You're not the first person to have this happen, nor the last.


so again.


A. gauranteed $150


B. gambled almost $10,000


hmmmm.

 

my thoughts exactly

 

The keepers stretch before they crack, and the stretching can be deteceted by a simple visual examination (that you can do yourself if you have a few tools).

Billman can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would be foolish to replace the retainers if there is no visible sign of stretching. Billman has pictures to show you what to look for (try the search function).

Basically all you have to do is pull the cover and look at the height of the valve stems and retainers relative to the keepers.

 

Sorry,

Who is Billman?

 

Click here to view Billmans profile.

 

<< Good retainer on left ... Stretched retainer on right >>>

 

Thanks guys, I just got done pulling the cover and putting everything back together. The retainers look good with no visible stretch or crack. I put the valve cover back on and I made sure it went in okay, but didn't know the exact torque spec for that so I just tighten it down with wrench (not too tight), I just found out that it doesn't take much (like 8-9 ft.lb) so I hope everythihg is okay; most likely overtighten them by a bit!

Now are there any ways to inpect any leak from the valve cover gasket? I just wasn't sure if the overtighten the bolts will cause any leak or not. It does look like it is zipping through a couple of places (like on the front left side [corner] of the engine [left from the front of the car, and right side if you are heading toward the front of the car) but it might just be when I put the cover back on as it didn't go back in perfectly at first so with me moving the cover around it might pick up oil on some places.