Man, I know those bolts are huge or anything, but shearing them of at 8.7lbs seems crazy.

I had to double check that I had my torque wrench set correctly the first time I torqued bolts that low because it felt like I barely turned them.

 

I tighten mine with a 1/4" socket wrench so that I don't over torque them haha

 

I don't understand why you think it would be ok to drive it like that...youre missing 60% of the parts that hold the valve cover down ...if you thought it was ok to drive like that, I would have someone who knows what theyre doing double check your valve adjustment to make sure you didn't f@#k anything else up...motors are expensive to replace

 

Guys, I think you misunderstood me. The FIRST thing I want to do is fix the sheared off bolts problem. But I started this thread thinking this leak could be from something else. I already had an order ready to go for the sheared off bolts. But I just wanted to confirm if the leak is from something else. Cause if it was and ordering parts was necessary, then I would them add them to the same order. I should've mentioned the sheared off bolts in the beginning. That's my bad. But I think I just wanted everyone who's chiming on the cause of the leak to give me other possible causes than the sheared off valve cover bolts.

I ordered a set of 5 valve cover bolts, valve cover gasket and rubber grommets, spark plug tube seals just in case, and the cam cap holder bolts. The cam cap holder bolts are because the bolts sheared off deep in the hole and I'm not comfortable with tapping into them. I have PM'd Billman about it and he said it was okay to just replace the 3 cam cap holder bolts without having to replace the other ones. Just loosen them in sequence and tighten them to torque spec in sequence. But he also suggested that I could probably remove the broken part of the valve cover bolts with a dental pick. But I'm not exactly sure how to do that.

My valve cover is coming off again as soon as I get the parts.

 

Sounds like a plan. Get that problem fixed first. Then clean up that oil and drive the car around to see if the leak persists. My guess is that it won't.

 

Just a little update. So finally fixed everything up. Changed my valve cover bolts. Had to replace the cam cap bolts since the broken ends of the valve cover bolts were pretty deep in there and hard to extract. Also, I thought since I'd have my valve cover off again, I'd do my retainers too. Two were cracked. One of them was pretty bad but to my surprise I couldn't tell without taking them off. The keepers were not sunk in as far as I could tell. Also tightened my oil filter with a socket cause I've read horror stories about them coming off. Car ran great! No more leak. Autocrossed it this weekend.

Here's a picture of my new addition to my keychain!