Hello all, I'm pretty much writing this D-I-Y because I just changed my Valve Cover Seal and figured, eh why not.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Tools Needed/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
01. 10mm Wrench
02. 10mm Socket Wrench
03. 5/18" Spark Plug Adapter [at least I think thats the size]
04. Flat Head Screwdriver
05. Valve Cover Seal (Including the metal rings and plastic rings)
06. Razor
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Overview/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
The main purpose for this DIY is to remove the seal thats on the valve cover gasket and replace it with a new one. Below you will find a picture of the engine. My engine for my 93 accord is the stock engine.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Leaking Seals/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As you can see in this picture, my seal has leaked like a bitch, hence why i need to replace it
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\What we will be removing/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Everything that is encircled in red is what we will be removing, in order to get the valve cover gasket off (I will go into each one in the following steps)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 01/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
This is an important step that I think some people might forget. Disconnect the Negative terminal from the battery. You can do Both or the Negative, but do not do the positive only, has the negative will drain your battery from grounding itself.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 02/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Remove all of the spark plug cables from the valve cover gasket only. This way when it comes time to reconnect them, you know which ones goes into which cover, or if you want to remove them all, thats fine, just make sure to write down how they are connected on the distributor cap. Also remove the Spark Plugs [some people don't do it, i like to]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 03/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Lets remove the following items which are encircled in red
01. The hose that goes from your intake to the engine
02. The hose that goes from your Fuel Injection to the engine
03. The four screws holding down the Valve Cover
04. A cable that is below the oil cap
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 04/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Gently remove the valve cover gasket. If your valve cover gasket is a little tight to remove, then carefully place your flat head screw driver, between the valve cover gasket and the bottom part and slightly turn it, to lift up the valve cover. Once you have raised it, a little bit, what i did was, where i put oil into my engine, i placed my fingers in there and started to lift.
As my Valve cover gasket came off, so did the seal. If your seal does not come off, when you are removing it, be very careful not to let anything fall inside the engine. This is what my engine looked like, after I removed the valve cover gasket
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 05/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Remove the seal that should be around the valve cover gasket and the seals that are around the spark plugs. Again, be very careful not to let anything fall into the engine. Some seals have gotten so hard that it starts to break into pieces, so be careful. Also at this time, you will want to take your razor and clean off the dirt that is on the edge of your engine. See the picture above and you will see that my edge is clean. When you are scraping off the dirt, push away from the engine. I can not stress this enough, YOU DO NOT WANT ANYTHING FALLING INTO THE ENGINE
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 06/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Now we will move onto the valve cover gasket that you have just removed.
INSPECT your valve cover gasket to make sure that you do not have any cracks. If you do, either purchase a new valve cover gasket [junkyard] or try to get yours patched
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 07/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
So we have verified that the valve cover gasket does not have any cracks, now is time to install the new seal. The seal that I bought was rubber and did not need to use any RTV to help with the sealing. You can use some RTV thats up to you, but in my case, it was not needed. First, i started by putting on the valve cover gasket seal itself. Make sure it fits nicely into the grooves.
Also, if your spark plugs have oil in them, use a turkey baser to remove the excess oil.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 08/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Insert the spark plug seals. These too have grooves. The smaller thin plastic rings that came with my set are for the bottom [which i did not do] seals. For those i think i might pay the mechanic if my seals are still leaking.
This is what it should look like, when you are done inserting the seals
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 09/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Before we put the cover back on, remove those metal rings that are on the top side of the valve cover gasket [there should be new ones in your set].
Carefully place back the valve cover gasket and push it down by hand, just to make sure that everything fits perfectly.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 10/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Insert the metal rings [is a seal with a washer] back into the screws that you removed them from on the top and place back the screws you remove.
When you are tightening it, only make it hand tight and then a little more.The way i went into the tightening it was i went around in a clockwise motion. Sorry the picture below does not have the screws tight
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 11/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
If you removed your Spark Plugs, now is the best time to put them back in and tighten those.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 12/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Now reconnect the following
01. The hose that goes from your intake to the engine
02. The hose that goes from your Fuel Injection to the engine
03. The four spark plugs cable
04. A cable that is below the oil cap
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 13/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
If you did use any kind of RTV then you are suppose to wait 24 hrs before starting the car so that way the RTV can cure (A friend of mine used RTV, did not wait the 24hrs and nothing has happened yet).
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 14/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Reconnect the negative terminal from your battery (or reconnect whatever you disconnected from the battery)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 15/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Turn on your car.
If you used RTV then When you first turn it on, you will notice that the car will let out a lot of smoke [if you use the RTV], that is because it is burning off excess RTV, that is normal and after a few minutes it should go away.
As your car is running, check to make sure that there is no leakage from anywhere. Drive the car and check it after lets say 50-100 miles of driving to see if it is leaking again.
Some people prefer to change their oil after changing the seal. Did i do it?? no, because i will be changing my oil in about 2 - 4 weeks anyway.
..:: Any suggestions or comments or even your own preferred method is always welcomed. This is my first DIY that i have posted, enjoy ::..
bishpuppy
edit: August 15, 2007 @ 5:55AM -- updated the words valve cover [head gasket] to valve cover gasket.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Tools Needed/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
01. 10mm Wrench
02. 10mm Socket Wrench
03. 5/18" Spark Plug Adapter [at least I think thats the size]
04. Flat Head Screwdriver
05. Valve Cover Seal (Including the metal rings and plastic rings)
06. Razor
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Overview/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
The main purpose for this DIY is to remove the seal thats on the valve cover gasket and replace it with a new one. Below you will find a picture of the engine. My engine for my 93 accord is the stock engine.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Leaking Seals/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As you can see in this picture, my seal has leaked like a bitch, hence why i need to replace it
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\What we will be removing/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Everything that is encircled in red is what we will be removing, in order to get the valve cover gasket off (I will go into each one in the following steps)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 01/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
This is an important step that I think some people might forget. Disconnect the Negative terminal from the battery. You can do Both or the Negative, but do not do the positive only, has the negative will drain your battery from grounding itself.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 02/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Remove all of the spark plug cables from the valve cover gasket only. This way when it comes time to reconnect them, you know which ones goes into which cover, or if you want to remove them all, thats fine, just make sure to write down how they are connected on the distributor cap. Also remove the Spark Plugs [some people don't do it, i like to]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 03/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Lets remove the following items which are encircled in red
01. The hose that goes from your intake to the engine
02. The hose that goes from your Fuel Injection to the engine
03. The four screws holding down the Valve Cover
04. A cable that is below the oil cap
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 04/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Gently remove the valve cover gasket. If your valve cover gasket is a little tight to remove, then carefully place your flat head screw driver, between the valve cover gasket and the bottom part and slightly turn it, to lift up the valve cover. Once you have raised it, a little bit, what i did was, where i put oil into my engine, i placed my fingers in there and started to lift.
As my Valve cover gasket came off, so did the seal. If your seal does not come off, when you are removing it, be very careful not to let anything fall inside the engine. This is what my engine looked like, after I removed the valve cover gasket
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 05/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Remove the seal that should be around the valve cover gasket and the seals that are around the spark plugs. Again, be very careful not to let anything fall into the engine. Some seals have gotten so hard that it starts to break into pieces, so be careful. Also at this time, you will want to take your razor and clean off the dirt that is on the edge of your engine. See the picture above and you will see that my edge is clean. When you are scraping off the dirt, push away from the engine. I can not stress this enough, YOU DO NOT WANT ANYTHING FALLING INTO THE ENGINE
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 06/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Now we will move onto the valve cover gasket that you have just removed.
INSPECT your valve cover gasket to make sure that you do not have any cracks. If you do, either purchase a new valve cover gasket [junkyard] or try to get yours patched
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 07/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
So we have verified that the valve cover gasket does not have any cracks, now is time to install the new seal. The seal that I bought was rubber and did not need to use any RTV to help with the sealing. You can use some RTV thats up to you, but in my case, it was not needed. First, i started by putting on the valve cover gasket seal itself. Make sure it fits nicely into the grooves.
Also, if your spark plugs have oil in them, use a turkey baser to remove the excess oil.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 08/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Insert the spark plug seals. These too have grooves. The smaller thin plastic rings that came with my set are for the bottom [which i did not do] seals. For those i think i might pay the mechanic if my seals are still leaking.
This is what it should look like, when you are done inserting the seals
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 09/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Before we put the cover back on, remove those metal rings that are on the top side of the valve cover gasket [there should be new ones in your set].
Carefully place back the valve cover gasket and push it down by hand, just to make sure that everything fits perfectly.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 10/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Insert the metal rings [is a seal with a washer] back into the screws that you removed them from on the top and place back the screws you remove.
When you are tightening it, only make it hand tight and then a little more.The way i went into the tightening it was i went around in a clockwise motion. Sorry the picture below does not have the screws tight
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 11/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
If you removed your Spark Plugs, now is the best time to put them back in and tighten those.
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 12/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Now reconnect the following
01. The hose that goes from your intake to the engine
02. The hose that goes from your Fuel Injection to the engine
03. The four spark plugs cable
04. A cable that is below the oil cap
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 13/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
If you did use any kind of RTV then you are suppose to wait 24 hrs before starting the car so that way the RTV can cure (A friend of mine used RTV, did not wait the 24hrs and nothing has happened yet).
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 14/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Reconnect the negative terminal from your battery (or reconnect whatever you disconnected from the battery)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ\Step 15/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Turn on your car.
If you used RTV then When you first turn it on, you will notice that the car will let out a lot of smoke [if you use the RTV], that is because it is burning off excess RTV, that is normal and after a few minutes it should go away.
As your car is running, check to make sure that there is no leakage from anywhere. Drive the car and check it after lets say 50-100 miles of driving to see if it is leaking again.
Some people prefer to change their oil after changing the seal. Did i do it?? no, because i will be changing my oil in about 2 - 4 weeks anyway.
..:: Any suggestions or comments or even your own preferred method is always welcomed. This is my first DIY that i have posted, enjoy ::..
bishpuppy
edit: August 15, 2007 @ 5:55AM -- updated the words valve cover [head gasket] to valve cover gasket.
i am bout to do the same thing to my valve cover and wanted to see any step by step pics on how to do it. thanks man, nice diy.
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