Ok, now that I've got my timing belt issues cleaned up I want to clean up the rest of the nagging things on this car. While underneath I noticed oil leakage along the bottom of the valve covers. Is this a typical early (91-94) Legacy problem. Can I just change the valve cover gaskets and expect the leaks to be cured or is there some other cause here I'm missing (or going to find out about when I pull the covers)? TIA... Lorry

I think that there are bolt gaskets as well.

 

Matt

Two things cause these leaks: Old gaskets that have gone hard and a bad PCV system.

 

I replaced the PCV valve before I did the gaskets and it did actually slow down the leak.

 

New gaskets are of course needed to make things really tight again. Most older cars tend to leak from the rocker cover gaskets because of excessive blowby caused by cylinder bore wear. However, Sube engines do it because they are "flat" and the oil will rest directly on the gasket. Serious bore wear on a Sube engine takes VERY high mileage :-)

 

Oh, yes, you do need new bolt gaskets too. They been have redesigned, so don't worry if the new ones look different. They are thicker "under" the bolt head to increase the pressure on the rocker cover gaskets.

 

Space is very tight, so clean off the cylinder heads and nearby surfaces or otherwise you will get dirt on the inside of the rocker cover and have to spend ages making sure you get it all out again......trust me, I speak from experience

also, the rear passenger cam seals tend to leak, and you should've done the front cam and crank seals while you had the timing belt dilema, not sure if you did.

Thanks for the input all, Guess I'll order the valve cover and bolt gaskets and change them, certainly can't hurt. Josh, I did change the cam and crank seals, and the oil pump o-ring but I left the water pump alone. It seemed to be alright and I didn't notice any leakage around the base of it. BTW, how does one change the rear cam seals? Is it major invasive surgery like the T-Belt?

remove two bolts, pull cap off, pull old o-ring out, clean up area, reassemble.

 

Not too hard

The O ring where the oil filler pipe is mounted to the left valve cover also leaks frequently. Just two bolts to remove.

 

Urban.