Rear (RH) cam/valve cover gasket replacement; how long?

[BlownNitroPontiac]

I bought a gasket and tube seals, since the valve cover gasket is leaking at the corner.

My mechanic friend says the rate book says 2 hours.

How long should it REALLY take?

Thanks.

[1fatcat]

2 hours is about right. There are a few things that need to be removed to get the valve cover off.

[1fatcat]

I looked it up, book time via alldata is 1.4 hrs.

[CMNTMXR57]

I've done both. I'm an experienced mechanic. If by right, you mean the REAR cam cover, you won't even get it off in 1.4 hours, much less fixed with a new gasket, cam cover back on, and all bolted down, and then re-hooking up the EGR system, all ignition modules, and the wiring harness that runs along the back side.

If by right, you mean the FRONT cam cover, that is about 1.5 to 2 hours. The only real difficulty on that one is removing the water pump drive pulley which is up there. I would highly recommend the right style pulley puller for it too. A general pulley puller won't work and you will risk bending/breaking the plastic pulley. You can rent them at Advance. You will also need an additional seal for that. It may also be advantagous to clamp the upper radiator hose, then disconnect it from the t-stat housing and move it out of the way. I did not do this. I simply worked around it.

Loctite all those bolts too. I think they're 7 ft/lbs of torque. Which after one heat cycling of the engine, will all be loose again, and you're still leaking oil, negating all the labor you just spent to fix the oil leak you had.

[BlownNitroPontiac]

Affirmative. REAR. That's what the subject line stated.

So, even after Loc-tite, the bolts will all be loose again?

Then, what's the purpose of using Loc-tite?

[CMNTMXR57]

No, use loc-tite to keep that from happening.