I have a pretty bad oil leak on my 88 302 EFI manual. It seems to be the passenger valve cover gasket. I thought about getting the Summit rubber gaskets. Any opinions on those? Has anyone done this before? Any traps I should be aware of? I guess it's just taking off the upper intake manifold, replace the gasket and put everything back together. What do you guys think, how long will I need?

 

when you do this, be sure to clean the drain hole below the PCV grommit. (I like to drill mine bigger) the older SB's were famous for plugging the drainback hole and flooding the #8 cyl with oil. You will also need an upper intake gasket and probably a PCV grommit. AS for tools, you will need a L-O-N-G Torx driver for the middle bolt, and probably a blue wrench to heat the EGR tube to loosen the nut. (be careful not to break it) It is a fairly easy procedure though and first time, expect to use the better part of an afternoon.

 

Sometime around 88-90 Ford used some strange valve cover gaskets on some of the 302's. If you've got one of these, be careful. They used a cork gasket with metal insert buttons, two buttons per bolt hole. The buttons stop the bolt head from compressing the gasket too flat, because the underside of the valve cover would hit these things and stop. Problem is taking the old gasket out, little metal pieces bouncing everywhere if you don't expect it. Don't want them getting where they shouldn't. I've used good quality Fel-Pro, been happy with them.

 

Thanks a lot! That was very valuable information! I'll probably get to it either this or at the latest next weekend.
I got torx sockets and a number of extensions. That should be long enough I guess?
I was a little worried about the EGR tube, too. It bolts to the lower intake manifold I guess? It's so rusted, I can't even get the EGR valve off. I thought about getting a tube+valve from the wreckers - just in case.
Pardon my ignorance: What's a blue wrench?
The people over at ford-trucks.com also recommended the FelPro gaskets. I guess I'll get those, then.
This site rocks, man! Thanks!

[This message has been edited by bjoern (edited 12-05-2000).]

 

A blue wrench is a torch. I personally prefer the Ford gaskets. They are steel w/ rubber on both sides. I have put about 100 sets of V/C gaskets on and not one come back leaking. They are about $40.00 for the pair from Ford.

 

My 86 302 lost a quart every 150 miles til I changed the valve gaskets,right on the exhaust manifold! Phew!! The best precaution I took on the switch was to use
those wide hold downs from autozones hot rod section. The covers were warped,I straightened them and used the hold downs(with longer bolts) and it never
leaked another drop...cork gaskets and Permatex blk #2,,it's the only way to go.
good luck,,,,98

 

I just got it done. No major problems. Took the intake manifold off and cleaned the throttle body. Boy what a massive amount of black goo there was on everything! There was even oil dripping out of the intake manifold when I took it off. Cleaned everything as good as I could, before I put it back on.
Used permatex red on the valve cover gaskets and torqued the bolts really slowly and evenly. Keep the fingers crossed...