Any solution to prevent premature failure/leakage of valve cover gasket??

[Brit01]

Had my aveo 2011 1.6 G3 for about 4 years now.

One big pain with it is the notorious valve cover gasket.
I follow all the steps carefully while replacing it. Super clean surfaces, correct torque and sequence etc.
Tried various amounts of silcone gasket around the half moons.

But as always after about 7-8 months of heavy use it begins seeping a film of oil down the front, always starts off in the right corner, then slowly spreads.

I change it every year!! Seems to go quite hard after less than a year which I assume causes the leak..

Tried original gaskets, aftermarket ones also. All the same.

Is it just a serviceable item that needs replacing every flippin year??

Thanks

[sjcleckley1]

about the only thing I can think of is to glue or seal it completely to valve cover in the grove and to head sealing area id use the Permatex the Right Stuff grey but will be a real pain to clean if you ever have to do it again but soaking it in solvent a while helps

I had a 2008 had to do it every year the 2009-2011 have to have a good seal as it's a vacuum leak also it has a low pressure regulator/vacuum to regulate crankcase low pressure and that is the PVC valve also so

[sjcleckley1]

well after a year it started leaking again just plain ridiculous and waited too long to replace it about 2 months later I did and it had oil in the spark plug holes to top of the middle ones 2-3 to top of the spark plugs literally they were under oil and it did a number on the coil plug seals and they need replaces so this time I glued/sealed the gasket to cover and top of head and will see how long it last this time

[northguest47]

I'm on my second Aveo, both 1st gen Etec-II models, and the same issue with the gaskets. They leak into the plug area too especially and that is a pain.. like you said better to just do it every year like a preventative. Only think my mechanic said is that the cover itself is the problem - the valve cover warps a bit and so you can't get the same great seal. Still if someone figures out how to 3D print a new valve cover maybe we can solve the issue. I'm thinking of ordering a new one as a test. If I do that I'll post back.

[sjcleckley1]

Well, I noticed a downfall to a totally sealed gasket before last replacement it used some oil well several problems got those fixed and new valve cover gasket was using some oil went over to the Valvoline restore oil seemed to get better and gasket started to leak again was not using oil fixed valve cover gasket before I had to do 2 350 mile trips same week about 2 weeks after those trips I checked the oil was way low verry scarry low so with a totally sealed crank case it using oil again higher low preassure FYI

Well up date went back to regular Valvoline synthetic not the restore one and on a trip to San Diego oh that mountain climb on an off the transmission hold did no use/loose oil whereas it did last time

[Syreeta]

You have a heat creating metal surface with only a low thermal mass high insulation value flexible piece of plastic mating to it, there is no heat sinking capacity and it seems the type of oil these use is prone to being really bad for rubbers, if you can find a silicone based gasket (not the tube stuff though I do wonder) you can likely eliminate many of the heat and chemical issues, but you still have a valve cover that is more likely to flex under pressure and vacuum not to mention heat cycling, now there is a common issue these have with the in valve cover PCV valve and I can give a write up on how to safely remove it without damage to the valve cover (hint is take the valve apart before out) and that PCV valve is known for failing and causing high valve cover vacuum, this combined with heat soaking when off means it will then pressure cycle while it heat cycles, making the valve cover gasket move and if it doesn't move enough to leak on its own then it moves enough to cause the elastomers in the gasket to further wear out causing it to acquire micro cracks as it flexes and then leaks along with lacking deformation elasticity pressure to maintain a seal, I can recommend some janky potentially worse than nothing fixes that could also be the holy grail, but I'll wait till a request is made since that type of information in the wrong (inattentive) hands can lead to all the downsides with no elf the potential upsides. Sorry for the wordy reply, it's my first.