Valve cover gasket...?

[77_Bus_Girl]

More questions from the air-cooled challenged...

I'm pretty sure one of the gaskets on my valve covers (if that's even the correct term) is causing the wee puddle of oil under Jurgen. Never having changed one, is it a simple thing to do? I believe I've got a set of gaskets sitting in the garage. I guess what I'm asking is can I do it without removing the engine, or can I just crawl under there, pop it off, and replace the gasket?

[satchmo]

Yes, you can do it. And it takes a few minutes at best.

Get under your bus just behind the rear wheels. Look for the rounded valve cover with the thick wire retainer over it. It sits just above the heat exchanger. Get a short, stout, flat blade screw driver and pry the wire 'bail' down off the valve cover. After a little coaxing with your screw driver, it just kind of falls down off the cover. The valve cover may or may not want to come off once the wire bail is off. If it doesn't, you need to pry it off with something. Nothing else is holding it on once the bail is down, so don't worry you are going to break something.

Now that the cover is off, you have to take the old gasket out. The gasket may be on the inside of the cover, the rim of the cylinder head, or pieces may be on both. You have to remove all traces of gasket on both the head and the cover or you won't get a good seal. Wipe all oil out the valve cover and wipe off the sealing surface on the head. Now you can put a new gasket on.

I use Hylomar, which is a non-hardening gasket sealer, on the valve cover surface to hold the new gasket in place. You might have something similar. Put your new gasket in the valve cover, then put the cover on the clean, dry surface of the cylinder head. Make sure it is seated in there nice, and pull the bail back up until it clicks into place in the center of the cover. You might need to use your stout screw driver or an open end wrench to pry the bail back in place.

Run the engine a bit to make sure there are no leaks. Some folks replace the gaskets with each valve adjustment and oil change. I use the cork gaskets and find that they last for several oil changes.

Good luck, Tim

[Sluggo]

If you have to pry off the cover, make sure you don't bend it. Or it may never seal properly again.

[bottomend]

I would say to use ONLY a 14mm or 15 millimeter wrench to pry under the bail wire. A screwdriver can leave a nasty gouge and scrapes more paint off.

The bail may want move upward to enable the removal of the valve cover or it may want to move downward. Becarefull as you pry. I almost broke my rather large nose once while getting a little too close/curious during the " pry phase" of this procedure.

If the valve cover is stuck after you get the bail swung out of the way, try tapping on it from the side a little. Still not moving? Tap harder from a few different directions. Not much room under there, huh!?

Once you get the cover off you'll see the rocker arms. You will eventually learn how to do a valve adjustment and this is were it takes place! You can see the rocker arms that span the distance from the valves ( topside) to the pushrods ( bottom). They "rock" back and forth to actuate the valves.

Top side on each of the rocker arms you will see a place to put a screw driver surrounded by a nut. This nut is loosened and then the screw is either tightened or loosened in order to achive proper "valve clearence". This requires a set of feeler gauges that are inserted into the gap between the set screw you loosened and the end of the valve stem ( which is located directly UNDER the set screw!). There will only be a gap of .006 of an inch. It's really small...


Anyway, right now you just want to change the gasket so when you pull the valve cover off the head, the gasket may still be stuck to the head, it may be stuck to the inside of the valve cover or it may just fall on the ground. If it's is stuck to any of the surfaces, it should be peeled away so that there are no remnants remaining. If there is stuff left behind... guess what happens? LEAKS!

You can use a razon blade to VERY GENTLY scrape the surface of the SOFT ALUMINIUM head to get the remaining gasket off. Go slow and easy. You dont want to cut into the head with the razor and cause permanant leaks!


Scrape out the inside of the valve cover too if there is stuff left in there. You dont have to worry as much here because this part is made of steel.

After the surfaces are free from any gasket, spray them off with some carb cleaner or brake cleaner. If you are a drug addict, you may take this moment to grab a free buzz by sniffing the fumes. If you like unimaginable pain, dont check to see if the little spray nozzle is pointed in the correct direction and squirt some into your eye.



I usually just put a few dabs of grease on the sealing surface of the cover then insert the gasket into the groove around the perimiter. The grease just holds the gasket while I place the cover onto the head.

Something to watch for at this stage;

Legs sticking out into traffic if you're working on a city street. Wheelchair lift equipted bus's are rare but propbably not unheard of and you'd probably recieve quite a bit of mercy from the VW community to start a fund raiser in your benifit for the retrofit.

When replacing the cover, start by rotating the bale so it's at the bottom, then place the cover over the head. You will see how it's flanges and the heads sealing surface will mate up.
It's a very common mistake to put the cover on "cockeyed" and then rotate the bail into place, leaving a big, wide, unseen gap for enough oil to slicken even the dryest dirt road. Keep your eyes on the cover as you rotate the bail upward to make sure it doens't "push" the cover off of the sealing surface. YOu'll be using your wrench as a lever to push the bail upward while you're checking for movemet.

Aftter you've got the cover into place, take a finger and run it along the back side of the sealing surfaces to see if you can feel a gap. You'll be feeling for the thin edge of the steel cover and the thick, flat head surface. Go slow and use your fingers as " eyes", Karma Sutra love making style.

You may need to use a rubber hammer or something softer than a regular steel hammer to "seat" the cover if you find a gap that indicates the cover shifted during it's installation. Or, you can take it off completely and start over again.

If there is any doubt that you didn't get it seated all the way, keep checking until you know for certain. I did a quick valve job a while back and didn't get things back to where they should've been and leaked oil for about 20 miles until my oil light came on. I didn't kill the engine but I probably came close. I found the problem , punched myself in the throat and walked down the highway about a mile to a store and bought 4 quarts of cheepy oil to replace the expensve good stuff I had just used to pollute the already grossly over polluted Los Angeles basin. Now there are more glow in the dark fish swimming in Santa Monica Bay due to my negligence.

[77_Bus_Girl]

Whoa! That's quite the response! Thanks! It's pouring rain right now, so I'll hold off for better weather, but hopefully you all have given me enough info to do the job!