Valve cover gasket
 

Hi, I have a NA '86 944. There coming from the bolt right below the "P" on the valve cover and the oil leaks down onto the exhaust. Is this the valve cover gasket? How hard is it to be replaced? Also, how important is it to get this fixed, if I keep an eye on the oil levels? Thanks for your help.

Brad

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

I believe you are honor bound to fix this leak. This is a Porsche. Porsche's simple aren't allowed to leak oil: you are hazarding the marque's reputation.

Now, if this were an English sports car you would be obliged to let it continue forever, and to always park the car where the leak would stain the pavement most prominently and be an annoyance to the maximum number of people possible.

Seriously, asny oil leak is annoying and one like this should not be hard to fix. I'm sure there is a gasket of seal to cure this and you really should see to it. Go by a local dealer and ask, or search places on the web.

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

That is what is called the cam tower gasket. The 8v NA and turbos do not utilize valve covers, instead they use cam towers. That is an 11 dollar gasket, but requires removal of the timing belt to do it, so keep that in mind. My advice is while you have the cam tower off, is to replace the cam tower gasket, the rear cam gasket (AKA the hippo gasket...it looks like a fat hippo), the front cam wiper seal, front cam oring, and mylar seal, and then there is another tiny little round rubber gasket in there, i can't remember what it is called. All the seals and gaskets together will run you about 30 bucks or so.

It should be fixed as soon as possible, it will only get worse.

edit: When you remove the cam tower off the head, the hydraulic lifters will want to fall out. Make sure that you mark them so that they go back in the hole they came out of.

The job will also require a 12mm triple square bit (to seal the rest of the cam tower anyways), and a long 6mm allen socket (want a good quality one that will go on a 3/8" rachet). Make sure that you "wake" up the allen bolts before you try and turn them off, or you will more than likely strip them. To wake them up, get a hammer and a punch, and put the punch inside the allen head and give it a few sharp blows with the hammer. Then you can go at it with an allen. Stripping a bolt inside the cam tower is no fun...drilling it out is even less fun.

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

My '88 944 has the same problem but I didn't think it'd be that much work. How many hours is this job PorscheDoc? I'm still trying to get the motivation together to fix the thermostat in mine, if this is a few hour job I may just take a full day off work to fix everything with the car. Also how difficult is it to get the timing right when replacing the timing belt?

Thanks for your help

Jake

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

Timing is not hard to get right, either it is on or it is off, and you don't want it to be off in the interference motors. The job is probably listed as a 6-7 hour a job, i would have to look when i get to work. It can be done much faster than that, but 1st time go around expect it. If your belts and waterpump are due to be changed in the near future, then do it all at once. Plus trying to replace the thermostat with the waterpump in the car is a REAL bear. When you get to that stage, the garage shop manual over at www.clarks-garage.com will walk you through the entire process. It is all under his camshaft section.

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

Sweet, that's exactly what I needed. Thanks

RE: Valve cover gasket
 

Cam housing gasket is about 7.7 hours. Waterpump is 9.5 hours. The thermostat can be gotten with the pump in the car, it could take you 5 minutes, or 5 hours. It is very frustrating job that should be simple. Out of the car, the thermostat obviously takes about 30 seconds.