Rocker Cover Gasket...

T0m

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...anyone had to do this yet?

I changed my oil and filter the other day and noticed some oil had spilt around a coil pack so I took it out to clean it and noticed a small amount of oil in the spark plug chamber. I thought it was funny there was a build up of old oil on my under tray so had a look and could see its been dripping down the side on the engine (from the drivers side) for a while but not that significant to notice it in general.

So only thing I can think is this gasket is shot as I did a search on the net for oil in the spark plug chamber and came across this link...

DIY: B6 A4 1.8T - AMB Valve Cover Gasket

Looks like a job for me to do this weekend see if that is the cause of the small leak.
 
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I've noticed this a little bit on mine but have so far put off doing it. 2 heads for me though. let us know how it goes. I'm sure other people not acquainted with major engine work would take confidence from a "yeah it was a 10 minute job" report :)
 
I've noticed this a little bit on mine but have so far put off doing it. 2 heads for me though. let us know how it goes. I'm sure other people not acquainted with major engine work would take confidence from a "yeah it was a 10 minute job" report :)[/QUOTE

10 min job haha the write up says about 1/1.5 hrs, it doesnt look tooo complicated though fourcircle!
 
hehe. yeah so a mild over eggageration on my part perhaps. I've done it on my old S2 and it wasn't too bad. the biggest risk there was bolt heads rounding off.
 
I had a coil pack fail on me the other day, investigating it we found oil all around the plugs, had my local garage replace the rocker gasket for me, only cost about £50. They showed me the old one and it was f'ed; really brittle, obvious it was letting oil escape. No problems since.
 
I had a coil pack fail on me the other day, investigating it we found oil all around the plugs, had my local garage replace the rocker gasket for me, only cost about £50. They showed me the old one and it was f'ed; really brittle, obvious it was letting oil escape. No problems since.

Cheap as chips fella unless like me you like getting dirty once in a while and doing jobs like this then all it costs is an hour of your time and a new gasket ;-) all good either way I suppose mate!
 
Hey guys got the gasket the other day and on the how to it says use some sealant, I presume this is the stuff you can use as an alternative to a gasket what are your thoughts people?
 
You need to dab a bit of sealer in the places it shows you. There prone to seep a little in these areas. I've just re done mine as the previous owner hadn't done it properly.

Only to find out my pcv system is blocked. Great, love long life servicing schedules. Naaaat.
 
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What sealer did you use fella?

I work for Subaru so I just used our version of instant gasket. I actually smeared a little sealer on both sides of the gasket just to be sure to get a good seal.
 
I work for Subaru so I just used our version of instant gasket. I actually smeared a little sealer on both sides of the gasket just to be sure to get a good seal.

Instant gasket thats the stuff I was looking at cheers fella!!!
 
You need to dab a bit of sealer in the places it shows you. There prone to seep a little in these areas. I've just re done mine as the previous owner hadn't done it properly.

Only to find out my pcv system is blocked. Great, love long life servicing schedules. Naaaat.

Am I right in thinking that blocked pcv system will increase pressure, which could cause leaks in the rcker cover gaskets? I think I'll do my pcv valve and rocker cover gaskets very soon. Time to dig for part numbers it seems...
 
Am I right in thinking that blocked pcv system will increase pressure, which could cause leaks in the rcker cover gaskets? I think I'll do my pcv valve and rocker cover gaskets very soon. Time to dig for part numbers it seems...

Where mine is blocked will be cauing high crank case pressure. As the breather pipe from the Rocker to the Turbo intake pipe is fine. Its the pipe work from the Crank case to the rocker thats blocked.
 
thanks. How did you identify you had a problem by the way? A noise from the pcv valve or from other symtoms?
 
thanks. How did you identify you had a problem by the way? A noise from the pcv valve or from other symtoms?

When I pulled the rocker cover off i could see that the metal pipe coming up from the pcv system was full of gunge.

I believe that its been caused by long life servicing. So ill be changing the oil pickup pipe in the sump at the same time.
 
aha. excellent. thanks. I thought perhaps you had an idea before you started taking the rocker cover off. I think I'll try to find my oil pick up pipe on etka and see how difficult it is to fit.
 
aha. excellent. thanks. I thought perhaps you had an idea before you started taking the rocker cover off. I think I'll try to find my oil pick up pipe on etka and see how difficult it is to fit.

Replacing the pick up pipe is easy, once you have dropped the sump. Its a good thing to change it if your car has poor oil maintenance.
 
certainly questionable in the past. so 2 rocker cover gaskets, gasket sealant, pcv valve and oil pick up pipe now added to the eternal shopping list :)