Valve Cover Leak..., please help ASAP i'm stuck :( Options

[tonytutino]

so i tried to change my valve cover gasket today, everything went fine and i bolted it all back together...
about 5 hours later i go to drive to my sister's house and as i pull in i start smelling burning oil and my car smokes a little bit from under the hood. i figured that was just the little oil i spilled on my headers earlier. well i drive to the bank a little later and my oil light comes on, then my car starts smoking real bad. i end up back at her place, check my oil level and i'm at empty and there is a huge trail of oil from where i had driven off earlier.
under the hood i see tons of oil on my alternator, bits splattered on my valve cover and header and alllllllllllllllllllll over the place....did the seal just not set or what?




This post has been edited by tonytutino: Sep 25, 2007 - 11:15 PM

[alltracman78]

The moment your oil light came on you should have turned off the engine, checked the oil, and in your case refilled it.

If it's not making any weird noises you probably got lucky.
Normally running it that low on oil and driving around will spin a bearing or seize the engine.

Anyways, here's what you did wrong

1-Always use a cleaner that leaves NO residue. Engine degreaser leaves residue. Brake clean doesn't. Alcohol doesn't.

2-ALWAYS clean BOTH surfaces.

3-You're supposed to use sealant on the corners of the outer cam and dist caps, and on the rubber plugs. Toyota says to use FIPG [OEM sealant that dries in less than an hour]. Black silicone will also work, but takes 24 hrs to fully dry.

FYI the entire gasket isn't going to fit into the groove. Some will be out. That is normal. Don't tighten the nuts too tight or you will deform the gasket, which can cause it to leak.

Oh yeah, and buy a new one to replace that one with if you've sprayed it with sealant and such.