Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

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snelson
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Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by snelson »

Admin: Thread cleaned up and copied to Technical reference Library. Original thread is here: http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6707
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Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

I know this is a pretty easy project for most, but just thought I'd post steps/details on how to change the valve cover gasket in case anyone else wants to tackle this themselves.

Set aside maybe an hour or two, and all you need is:
- 10 mm socket / wrench
- 12mm socket / wrench
- a torque wrench in inch pounds (not 100% necessary but always good to use/have)

Valve cover gasket kit/set which should include:
- valve cover gasket
- small half moon rubber piece
- 2 small rubber bushing/washer type pieces.

Some Form In Place Gasket goop - (not 100% necessary but comes in handy when placing the small half moon)

Image

Steps:

First remove the fan shroud - there's a small obvious clip on top of the fan shroud. Remove this.
Next slide the piece of shroud closest to the passenger door towards yourself to get it to 'unlock'. Push it down into the engine bay in order to get it under and around the upper rad hose and remove this piece of shroud. Next, there's a tiny screw to remove on top of the other half of the fan shroud, remove this screw, and slide the last piece of fan shroud out.

Now remove the timing belt cover. There are 5, maybe 6 bolts to remove. There are 2 longer bolts, and maybe four smaller bolts. The two longer bolts are actually different lengths, so when removing them, just remember which one came from what hole...

Image

Now you can start to remove the valve cover. There are only 2 bolts holding the cover on. There is also a smaller single bolt near the back of the cover holding the metal vacuum hose assembly to the cover. Remove these bolts but also take note of the order that the additional pieces on the front bolt are assembled so when you reassemble later, you know what piece goes where.

Image

The next step is to remove the small rubber vacuum hoses as well as a larger hose on the far side of the valve cover. Be careful and take your time removing these hoses as some may be brittle/hard and you don't want to tear them. You don't really need to remove all the hoses, just enough so that the metal vacuum tubes can be moved to one side. This will allow for easy removal and installation of the actual valve cover. I removed all the hoses on the front end of the metal vacuum hose assembly. There's also a hose leading from the injection pump - mine was braided - carefully remove this hose too and move it to the side.

**Remember when removing hoses it's a really good idea to use some tape to label each hose as well as where it was connected. So when you go to reassemble, you're not second guessing yourself as to what hose goes where...

Ok, so the bolts and hoses are removed, so now just give the valve cover a whack with a rubber mallot if needed or just a pop with your fist should allow you to remove the cover. Once the cover is removed, reach back and remove the small rubber half moon. Feel around at the back of the head, and you can pry it out/off with your hands.

Image

Replace the old valve cover gasket with the new and place a small film of fresh oil along the new gasket with your finger. Replace the 2 rubber stoppers/washers onto the long valve cover bolts. Double check the top of the head that it's clean and there are not pieces for dried up gasket stuck to it. If there are any, remove them with a plastic scraper and clean/dry this same surface.

Image

When replacing the half moon, this is where I used some 'Form In Place Gasket' goop. Place a small beed along the curved part of the moon (this is the bottom). This will allow act like a glue to make sure the moon doesn't move once you've place it back on the head and are putting the cover back on top.

Image

With the new gasket in place in the cover, and the half moon in it's place, put the cover back on top of the head, and replace the long bolts to tighten down the cover. At this point I just finger tightened the cover bolts, then connected all the vaccum hoses and made sure everything was seated properly. Now tighten the large cover bolts to 4-5 foot pounds of torque.

Image

Replace the timing belt cover **Make sure you didn't drip any oil on the belt, if so, make sure you wipe it off well. Tighten the timing belt cover bolts (didn't have a torque for this, but just make sure they're hand tight.) Also, make sure the timing belt cover is seated properly so no outside moisture/grit can make it's way in.

Replace the fan shroud and make sure all the shroud teeth connect - I noticed just as I was about to shut the 'hood' that the last shroud piece wasn't actualy seated properly.

That's it - start her up, let it run for a while and make sure everything is sealed properly and that you have no leaks - especially at the rear half moon area....

:M 8-)
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by Slimdog »

Great write up it helped me out.

One question though when I put the half moon gasket in place it felt like it was sticking up above the head surface by about 1/32". I assume thats why we use the sealant there? or did I not seat the gasket right?

Admin: question not answered in thread, so I'll answer it now: Yes, the rubber half-moon seal sticks up a bit when new. The rocker cover will compress it when installed.

Cheers

S
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by White Mule »

1987 Ford Ranger 2.3l Diesel has the same gasket.(4d55)

Part number: 91717 (valve gasket)
96264 (half moon)

Part Source $23.00
Thanks,

White Mule
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by FalcoColumbarius »

There should be in the package:
  • one half moon seal,
  • two grommets
  • one rocker cover gasket


The half moon seal goes in the back of the motor. You will find reference to this in the shop manual section in the L300 Technical Reference Library. You will also need a sealant ("3M ATD Part Number: 8660, or the equivalent") to put onto the half moon seal.

Falco.
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by Tojo »

Hi JC,

The halfmoon is a hard plastic or aluminum part, not a gasket. Put a bead of high heat silicone in the groove and press the halfmoon in there so it creates a good seal. The trick is to apply enough goop to seal the halfmoon, but not too much, or the excess silicone may fall into head and cause issues. Make sure that you press the halfmoon deep enough so that the mating surface for the valve cover gasket is smooth and flush. I would not use silicone between the valve cover and the valve cover gasket as it creates a big mess to clean up later. The hardest part about this job is getting back there under the engine cover, and being able to see what you're doing. I use a small mirror.

The pictures are not from a Delica, but you get the idea.
Good luck!
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by FalcoColumbarius »

Don't forget to sufficiently clean the surface of the head of oil/grease (with a degreaser) that the gasket/seal connects to so the sealant can stick.

Falco.
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by nxski »

jc1300 wrote:Well, lots of good tips ! As for the silicone sealant, I have some Permatex Ultra Black, or "RTV gasket maker". Do you think it's a good one, or do I need to find some 3M N° 8660 ?

Then what do you recommend for cleaning the gasket base from oil ?

One more question, it seems that with the kit, you have a half moon that comes with ? Like a plastic one ? Be the half moon that's on my engine is a aluminum one. Anyone is better than the other ?
Apparently VW dealers carry the best gasket sealant imported from Germany. My cousin says they use it instead of a gasket in some instances. The aluminum half moon seal is an "upgrade" from the evo engine I believe.
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by bionic »

FYI:
:-D :-D Rockauto.com has the valve cover gasket w/moon seal for $6.88. Part# FEL-PRO VS50100R.
I just received mine within 2 days to Blaine.
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Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by Growlerbearnz »

The official half-moon seal is made of rubber, and eventually shrinks and hardens. As mentioned above, the Evo has an alloy half-moon seal.

Mitsubishi part number: MD372348 Alloy Half-moon seal. Use grey silicone (the stiffer, high-strength stuff, as used on the sump) when fitting the alloy halfmoon- red or black silicone is too soft for this application and may eventually leak.

I installed this seal in my Delica a while back and it's gloriously leak-free, despite the rocker cover being removed a number of times over the last 20,000km.
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by bionic »

It should also be stated that you do not need to remove the fan shroud/timing cover on an L300....pure waste of time. Removing the valve cover is 2 X 12mm bolts and 3 rubber hoses and undoing 2 electrical plugs. The valve cover can be removed/reinstalled by carfully "rolling" the cover over the valve assembly. The seal is inserted into the cover lip, so it will not drop out if it was cleaned properly. Permatex Hi-temp sealant is all thats necessary for the 1/2 moon seal. As Falco stated, the only "secret" to this install is to carefully clean the mating surfaces. (a slight contortionist will accell here) Total time to disassemble/clean/refit should be around 1/2 hour.
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by jc1300 »

Well, thanks a lot for this tutorial. And all the answers I had here. My gasket is a Yundai. The number on the package is : 22441 42902. I hope it might help those who are looking for this part as well.

Fixing this gasket was easy, following the steps carefully. Then, the lips of the half moon are difficult to install properly, as reaching the rear end of the engine is tricky. But the leak is fixed.

Thanks for your help...
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by Morganizer »

I finally got around to this little task today. My Delica developed a very small oil leak right after I bought it, which was odd because the previous owner had just had the 100,000km maintenance done, and the engine was spotless.

So this took me 5 hours, mostly because, "Double check the top of the head that it's clean and there are not pieces for dried up gasket stuck to it." I'm not sure if it was old gasket (the one I took out was intact, so maybe residue from a previous gasket) or Permatex Black, but I had to scrub little bits of it for a couple of hours to get it clean to my satisfaction (those who know me, feel free to chuckle at this point.)

My tool of choice for this cleanup, better than brass brushes, Scotchbrite, or jamming rags in the groove was this:
TongueDepressor.JPG
TongueDepressor.JPG (116.41 KiB) Viewed 12320 times
It's a tongue depressor, cut at 90 degrees to get rid of the rounded end, then split into 5 pieces, and tape wrapped around to keep it from splitting any further. I scrubbed back and forth in the groove, like a broom, and because of the splits it would curve around corners, especially useful on the glow plugs side where nothing's a straight line. It rubbed the debris into little, snake-like goobers, that I whisked out with a toothbrush.

Also worth mentioning, another invaluable tool for this job was one of those swivelling mirrors on a telescoping rod. Very handy for checking out the half moon seal, whether you got the surface clean enough, etc.

I read somewhere, to get the half moon seal out you just reach back there and pop it out with your fingers. I had to get small vice grips on it, and you can see there was quite a bit of goop holding it in place. See the importance of applying only a small bead of Permatex Black when reinstalling.
RubberMoon.JPG
RubberMoon.JPG (110.58 KiB) Viewed 12320 times
Also note, I replaced the rubber half moon with an aluminum one, from Harold Zeigler Mitsubishi, Kalamazoo Michigan, Part#MD372348. When this thing arrived, I thought it can't possibly be the right one, it's too small, but it fit perfectly.

Oh, and a Deli mechanic told me there's another one in the front too, but it's harder to replace. I found it hard to replace because it doesn't exist! I looked for it, but didn't find it. So I've got a spare aluminum half moon gasket, all the way from Kalamazoo. PM me if you're interested.

Can someone explain the half moon phenomenon? I mean, why not just make the surface flat all the way around? Is it because they need the half moon cut-out to get the cam shaft in? I'm sure it's necessary, just inquiring minds want to know.

And the other mystery, when I ordered my gasket, it came with two rubber seals, which I installed around the bolts that go through the head cover...and it also came with two more, similar seals (these ones with metal cups on the back) which I didn't use because they're for larger bolts than the ones in my engine. Anybody know about this? Are there Deli engines with valve cover bolts larger than the ones with 12mm heads on my engine?
LargerLeftovers.JPG
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Got a couple of leftover rubber seals. PM me if you need some for your larger bolts. ;)

As I was putting the timing belt cover on, the foam seal from the top edge fell out. So I pulled off the cover and looked around for something to replace it...and noticed the old valve cover gasket was about the right size...so I cut a couple of pieces to length...but they were too tall...so I sliced them lengthwise with a knife...then put them in the timing belt cover with a bit of Permatex Black in the groove... (I'm just sayin')

Oh, and I don't have a torque wrench, so I just imagined I did, and 4-5lbs would be way down at the light end. Then I couldn't get the timing belt cover to seat unless I tightened down the front some more. So I torqued it just until it fit, then pulled on the back bolt about the same. Probably around 7-10lbs, I reckon. Or maybe when the timing belt cover just fits over the valve cover, that's 4lbs spot-on, and so you don't really need a torque wrench. Food for thought.

And furthermore (this just keeps getting better) I was wondering why it leaked in the first place. The speculation was that the rubber half-moon had given way (hence the aluminum bits from Kalamazoo) but there didn't seem to be much oil down the back. Most of it was on the exhaust side of the engine (which is why my passengers asked, "what's that smell?" going up a steep hill), below the straight edge of the valve cover. I inspected the groove, and it was rough in patches through the middle. Pits, caused by the beginnings of oxidation. I wrapped some sandpaper around My Favourite Tool and gently sanded the pits smooth. Then finished up with some Scotchbrite. So I think that's why it was such a slow leak (1/4 litre in 15,000km): the oil was going up over the gasket, through the tiny pits created by oxidation. And that's why it wasn't getting worse, because the oil kept the oxygen out, keeping oxidation to a minimum.

So I'm hoping that with a smooth groove and a new gasket (and an aluminum half moon from Kalamazoo!) there will be no more leaking.

And after I degrease the engine, no peculiar smell. (sigh)
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Re: Here's how to replace your valve cover gasket

Post by Growlerbearnz »

"Can someone explain the half moon phenomenon? I mean, why not just make the surface flat all the way around? Is it because they need the half moon cut-out to get the cam shaft in? I'm sure it's necessary, just inquiring minds want to know."

The half moon cutout is there so the boring (as in drilling, not *yawn*) machine can bore out the camshaft bearings in a straight line and all in one go.
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