When I was removing my headers about a week ago I noticed that I had a little oil on the rear drivers side head. It's coming from where the cam cover meets the head. It's not bad, but I don't like it. The entire engine is brand new and we used new cam cover gaskets when when did the engine swap. I can't imagine it's a bad gasket...What can I do to stop this leaking?

 

I wiped the oil away, but here is where it's leaking...

 

HI!... I had the same problem after installing cast aluminum valve covers on my built 5.4. I just took the valve cover off and cleaned everything with brake clean. Then I put a thin film of PERMATEX black silocone all around the valvecover surface on the cylinder head. Re-installed the valve cover and it hasn't leaked since. I figure the aftermarket aluminum valve covers are not perfectly square and don't quite sit right on the heads gasket surface.

 

Did it make a mess when you took the cam cover off?

 

HI!... NOPE! Not a drop. The gasket surface of the cylinder head is higher than the internal bottom, plus the head has oil drain back holes in it to get the oil back to the oil pan as fast as possible. Just let the truck sit overnight. When you go to do it all the oil will of run down to the pan plus the engine will be cold and easier to work on. Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to do.

 

Isn't this a great board where we help each other out!

 

Before you pop the valve cover check the torque on the bolts.

 

They're all tight. The way the cam cover bolts are designed you can't overtighten them. I did check them though. They were all tight. I think I will pop it off tomorrow and add a little RTV. The truck is down right now because I sent the headers off to Jet-Hot to get a coat of their 2000. I will be able to take my time because it's not going anywhere for a while.

 

HI!... While the valve cover is off you might as well re-tq your head bolts too.

 

I don't think I'll be doing that. I have ARP Head Studs and they were torqued to spec. I'm not going to mess with that stuff... My tuner would whup me if he knew I did something like that.