Valve gasket cover.... a few specific questions

[kimberlydale79]

Hi! I'm Kim. My 2006 Aveo hatchback is Rihanna!

So, Rihanna has been leaking oil out of the top, under what I call the "vanity cover" I did a bit of googling, and came to the conclusion it was a valve gasket cover.

This was about 6 months ago.....
I purchased the items needed to replace the cover gasket. Then, I got stuck in a bit of an embarrassing predicament. I couldn't get off the vanity cover. Those stupid allen wrench bolts kicked my backside.

Now, Rihanna isn't the greatest car, but she keeps going no matter what I do to her. (hence the name) But, the oil has gotten worse, and now smokes whenever I stop. I went to the store and got a allen wrench head that I could use on a hex wrench. 3 bolts broke off, and one was stripped. And, I'm a chick that weighs 135 lbs, so I felt powerful and disappointed at the same time. So, I did what I considered the intelligent thing: I pretty much destroyed that stupid plastic cover. Ripped it off. It's in 4 different pieces in my garage trash can.

So, tomorrow, I get to actually take the real top off and get to work. I don't see any sort of plastic, and mainly good old fashioned bolts, so I think we will be ok. That being said, please allow me to ask you kind people a few questions if I may:

1) it appears that the stripped screws are now a permanent fixture on the top of my engine. I'm cool with this, but want to make sure that these silly things only bolted into this top piece. If not, and somehow they reach through and subsequently attach the top of the engine to the actual block, I may have additional problems.

2) Once I get in there, I will probably switch out the plugs as well. Something tells me that the stupid vanity cover had never been off before, and the car has 110k miles on it. (yes....it is the original timing belt AFAIK... ) I'm assuming I'm going to have a lot of oil around the plugs. If some of it happens to fall into the block, is that a real big no-no?

3) Outside of the normal things everyone has in their garage, is there any strange outlandish tool that I will need to utilize?

Thanks in advance for any help. My "used to be second job" (pizza delivery) has temporarily become my primary source of income. So, I'm slowly trying to get the car back in shape.....

[avguy]

The allen head bolts only attach in the valve cover. Are you certain the smoke is caused by the oil from the leaking valve cover gasket? I had quite a bit of oil around the gasket area before I changed it, but never saw any smoke. Lots of folks let the oil spill down into the cylinders, and I'm not aware of anyone having a problem as a result. But I personally don't like the idea of putting extra lube (oil) on the plug hole threads, so I pulled the oil out of the plug holes using some small plastic tubing prior to removing the plugs. Needle-nose pliars are good for getting the plugs out and the new ones back in without dropping or banging them around (if you don't have a mag plug socket).
You have been rolling sevens with that timing belt - I hope your good luck continues

[kimberlydale79]

The allen head bolts only attach in the valve cover. Are you certain the smoke is caused by the oil from the leaking valve cover gasket? I had quite a bit of oil around the gasket area before I changed it, but never saw any smoke. Lots of folks let the oil spill down into the cylinders, and I'm not aware of anyone having a problem as a result. But I personally don't like the idea of putting extra lube (oil) on the plug hole threads, so I pulled the oil out of the plug holes using some small plastic tubing prior to removing the plugs. Needle-nose pliars are good for getting the plugs out and the new ones back in without dropping or banging them around (if you don't have a mag plug socket).
You have been rolling sevens with that timing belt - I hope your good luck continues

Thanks! The smoke actually comes from turning right,lol. I turn right, oil spills from its buildup near the the spark plugs to the right of the engine, down and over, and lands on the block and exhaust manifold, where it burns off. Thank you for your help.

[kimberlydale79]

And the day does not start off well........ Bolt breaking. Actually 3. Then, I stopped when I continued to bat 100%. Must google why....... Broken valve cover bolts. I did not think that these were torqued, however I could be wrong.

[avguy]

It sounds like your last post isn't talking about the original 3 broken deco cover bolts, but rather the actual valve cover bolts instead? If so, I think you need to get it into a shop at this point, unless you've done broken bolt removal in the past. Removing broken bolts can be a RPITA. Unless there's something sticking out to grab onto, it usually needs special tools such as left-hand bits, and extractors. And there's also some nasty things that can happen, like sending metal shavings into the oil

[kimberlydale79]

Yeah. It ended up being 3 bolts on the actual valve cover. I did a bit of googling and learned that it would be best to "back and forth" the bolt before going straight for the removal. I got the others off without breakage. Lesson learned. I got the cover the rest of the way off, and was able to get the broken pieces out with a set of needle nose pliers, believe it or not.... :/ Being that they weren't very stuck in there, I'm amazed they broke off in the first place. So I'm going to reattach, minus three bolts, and go to Parks, hoping the bolts are there.

Almost done, and I took pictures. So you guys can point out what I did wrong, and comment on how messy my engine is

[avguy]

Yeah. It ended up being 3 bolts on the actual valve cover. I did a bit of googling and learned that it would be best to "back and forth" the bolt before going straight for the removal. I got the others off without breakage. Lesson learned. I got the cover the rest of the way off, and was able to get the broken pieces out with a set of needle nose pliers, believe it or not.... :/ Being that they weren't very stuck in there, I'm amazed they broke off in the first place. So I'm going to reattach, minus three bolts, and go to Parks, hoping the bolts are there.

Almost done, and I took pictures. So you guys can point out what I did wrong, and comment on how messy my engine is

Well, way-to-go on getting it all undone But it would be MUCH better if you hitched a ride to your parts place and bought the bolts before starting. There is a bolt tighening sequence that should be followed, and the tightening should be done multiple times with increasing torque, up to the final spec. You MIGHT get away with adding the 3 missing ones later, but there's also a good chance that either the new gasket will leak, or that you will bend the valve cover.

[xintersecty]

I did the same procedure and had no problems with broken head cover gasket bolts. I did sequence them down. If you got the broken ones out congratulations.

[rancdsk8]

If you are having trouble just removing the vanity cover, I personally dont think you should be messing around with the valve cover gasket and you should let someone else handle that for you...but hey that is just my opinion. You also mentioned that you have been driving for 110k miles with the original timing belt. You are extremely lucky as those belts should be changed every 50k or 60k miles. You should actually change that thing ASAP because if that breaks you are gonna be looking at a repair bill that is more than $1000. Once the timing belt breaks on that car, it bends all the valves and makes it inoperable.

[Lolo_TWC]

I agree with rancdsk8. I had my timing belt snap at 65k and I'm never letting it go past 50k per belt again.
I am having trouble with oil fouling in the plugs, though. My car ran fine, it sat at the airport (outside) for two days in Oregon rain and when I returned, I had the dreaded flashing engine light and a pretty severe stutter / misfire. The stutter is just as the car gets into a new gear and then feels like it picks up and takes off, but with a nasty misfire.
I removed the plugs and wires to replace them all and serious oil fouling in Cyl. 1, and light in Cyl. 4. 2 and 3 were perfectly dry, but fried. They must have been doing all of the work.

I'm going to try to replace the valve cover gasket and see how that does. I'm also going to get a new spark plug socket wrench (the one that comes as one full assembly) because my other one kept popping off. I REALLY hope the gasket replacement does the trick, because I can't fathom another valve replacement if they installed new ones after I bent them all the first time.