Valve cover gasket and half moon seal replacement

[clintonian]

Hey all,

Maybe this will help another fellow newbie just a little bit...

I am two weeks new into the JDM market with my lovely Pajero. Since I got it, it has had a small oil leak that drips through to the bottom engine casing. Because of the small space in the engine compartment combined with not really knowing much about the engine yet, I was unable to locate the cause of the leak. As a result of wanting to get this looked at, I was over to meet Butch earlier today and had him take a quick look under my hood for an assessment of where I am getting a small oil leak from. What an outstanding guy he is. He is a huge reason why I love this JDM community as compared to any other random mechanic in the non-JDM world who has no buy-in and doesn't care about you or the vehicle. He's awesome. Anyway, I digress....

He felt behind the valve cover, for the newbies that is the cover that the oil filler cap is attached to, and saw that there was oil leaking out from the location of where this thing called a "half moon seal" is located. He had a vehicle on a hoist and was working on it, but rather than make an appointment for it, I asked how hard it would be to do myself and maybe have him supervise.... He said that would be a great idea! He offered to assist me in making sure I didn't screw something up. Anyway, long story short, I did the replacement of the gasket and seal myself with his assistance, and it really was an easy job.

To get to my point, when I had looked on the forum in the past, I hadn't seen any photos of the location of the half moon seal, so I thought I would pass a photo on in the hopes that it helps someone else diagnose an oil leak from this location, as it really is simple to fix.

Feeling for half moon seal

halfmoonseal.jpg (148.53 KiB) Viewed 3324 times

So, in the photo (I have a large hand) I am reaching in behind the valve cover and I can just feel the half moon seal with the pad of my middle finger. If there is oil there, it's leaking. Of note in my replacement, the half moon seal fell back into the space when I tried to put the cover back on again. I found this out when starting the engine again and oil was practically gushing out of there... Had to open 'er up again and re-seat the seal. Just a reminder for the newbie to be careful and check and recheck it is in place correctly after replacing the cover.

Also, if you don't have anyone helping you, the two top bolts that hold the timing belt cover on need to be loosened in order to help get the valve cover off.

Hope this helps someone. Also, Butch and I were talking about possibly setting up a Pajero get-together just like the Delica one this past summer. How many of you would be interested in attending that? Butch would cover some of the things that we as handy owners can do for preventative maintenance, as well as show off what they do as part of their Delica/Pajero Tune... Comments?

Cheers,
Clint

edited date: was confusing.

[etsinko]

Thanks for the photo and explanation! I should check the seal on my Pajero.

[Drooper]

If you use a drop of instant gasket on smeared around the half moon it will hold in place so that the cover can be tightened back down.

The 2.8 engine has one at each end and they both leak!