Valve cover gasket replacement!

I don't understand MrTris's photo. It appears to be saying to apply UltraBlack all the way around rather than select areas specified in the FSM. Am I misunderstanding?

So did you end up putting rtv all the way around?

No, I stuck to the FSM instructions.

ok. Any leak since?

post 85 is good info. I'll add my bit of info here

-be prepared to have your car down for a couple days. one to let the rtv dry and also its not as simple as stated in some earlier posts. mainly because of how tight it is. take your time and do it right or your going to have to do the job twice.

-remove insulation pad on passenger side frame rail to gain another 1/2" clearance

-i did not jack up the motor but it was very tight. saves time to not loosen motor and tranny mounts but also slows you down working in a tighter space. not sure which way is faster

-i did not remove underbody engine cover, but did open the oil filter access panel to clean up spilt oil

-jack up the one side of the car to spill less oil

-order the two passenger side valve cover vent/equalization hoses on older cars as they are likely to break. both of mine on my 05' GT were corroded on and broke during removal and were not in stock at subaru. the extra heat of the turbo wears down hoses and gaskets. My 2005 gt part numbers were 99071AC010 $10.22 (front) and 99071AC020 $41.22 (rear/firewall/longer hose)

-DO use rtv along with the new gaskets. Some have questioned if they really need to use it and I think you do. I used Permatex ultra black.

-keep track of which valve cover bolt goes where, there are two different styles of bolts. Sharpie labeled zip lock bags is my preferred method of organization.

-be careful when changing spark plugs if they have not been removed before. loosen them a half turn and tighten them again and repeat to break up gunk and clear the threads to avoid cross threading. my original 150k plugs looked pretty good still but I threw in new ones.

-NOTE don't mix up the 2 coil pack connectors during reinstall. the white connector is for the front and the rear connector has more black

Thanks for that ryans1000

I've been putting this off and an old and a slight update is nice.

2 yrs since the last post almost but oh well, every bit helps..

I'm doing the gasket replacement this weekend. Guess I better get some of those rubber vent tube hoses for the passenger side just in case.

Update: I followed posts 85 and 104. They covered the process and tricks. Good info. I did not jack up the engine and was able to do it ok.

I'm doing the gasket replacement this weekend. Guess I better get some of those rubber vent tube hoses for the passenger side just in case.

 

Update: I followed posts 85 and 104. They covered the process and tricks. Good info. I did not jack up the engine and was able to do it ok.

I just ordered the parts to do VCGs, spark plug gaskets and new plugs. Read through this and never really got clarification of where the Permatex Ultra black goes. Is it all around like post 73 shows or just the spots shown in the Subaru manual and like a few others stated? Or does it only really matter that you in fact use it one way or the other? Also Permatex around the spark plug gaskets or just the new gaskets themselves? Thanks

I found a writeup on nasioc on an 02 WRX. Not same head obviously but very similar. His method seems pretty logical to me

Was thinking I’d follow this idea to some extent (and prob around the top corners as well) and a bit more on the elevation change spots and do a thin bead around the spark plug gaskets (thanks dishwasher). I don’t blame u for being somewhat generous with the stuff who the hell wants to do this twice cuz ur first attempt leaked [emoji23]. Don’t think it would hurt as long as I don’t go overboard with it.

You can apply a thin layer where manual says. Or you can go all around the gasket. Both will work. Dont forget half moon seals. Also check that the oil feed port and the metal line is not leaking. The metal lines are known for cracking and is often overlooked.

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Sorry to bring back this thread. So I'm going to be doing the passenger side valve cover gasket in the near future. I see a felpro gasket set with the "valve cover gasket and the inner gasket/sparkplug gaskets." I also know I will need the half moon seals. But on Advance Auto Parts, Felpro also has this circular plug part that's listed for the valve cover??

What is this? Do I need this? Below is a picture of the circular plug I am referring to.

The link to the circular plug I'm looking at is here...

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felpro-circular-plug-es-72418/10942906-P?searchTerm=valve+cover+gasket

And is permatex ultra grey or ultra black better?

Sorry to bring back this thread. So I'm going to be doing the passenger side valve cover gasket in the near future. I see a felpro gasket set with the "valve cover gasket and the inner gasket/sparkplug gaskets." I also know I will need the half moon seals. But on Advance Auto Parts, Felpro also has this circular plug part that's listed for the valve cover??

 

What is this? Do I need this? Below is a picture of the circular plug I am referring to.

 

 

The link to the circular plug I'm looking at is here...

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felpro-circular-plug-es-72418/10942906-P?searchTerm=valve+cover+gasket

 

And is permatex ultra grey or ultra black better?

No EJ255 motor I’ve ever seen has that round gasket. I believe the black rtv is the one for extra oily areas so use that.

Sorry to bring back this thread. So I'm going to be doing the passenger side valve cover gasket in the near future. I see a felpro gasket set with the "valve cover gasket and the inner gasket/sparkplug gaskets." I also know I will need the half moon seals. But on Advance Auto Parts, Felpro also has this circular plug part that's listed for the valve cover??

 

What is this? Do I need this? Below is a picture of the circular plug I am referring to.

 

 

The link to the circular plug I'm looking at is here...

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felpro-circular-plug-es-72418/10942906-P?searchTerm=valve+cover+gasket

 

And is permatex ultra grey or ultra black better?

I’m doing both VCGs in the next few days.

Parts are as follows

VCGs

spark plug seals

new plugs (while ur in there)

Cam (half moon) seals

Black permatex

Most people suggest Subaru parts for the job. I would too. If you need part #s let me know I have em. They’re also in this thread

I wonder if that's some kind of mistake on their website, wouldn't be surprised.

My non-turbo has those plugs, no idea what they're for, never touched them in 230k. I guess they're some kind of plug for the camshaft?

ej253 in the picture below

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/EXoAAOSwhsVaqmq7/s-l1600.jpg

https://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru_2009_Legacy-25L-5MT-4WD-Sedan/PLUG/49287804/807045040.html

Sorry to bring back this thread. So I'm going to be doing the passenger side valve cover gasket in the near future. I see a felpro gasket set with the "valve cover gasket and the inner gasket/sparkplug gaskets." I also know I will need the half moon seals. But on Advance Auto Parts, Felpro also has this circular plug part that's listed for the valve cover??

 

 

 

What is this? Do I need this? Below is a picture of the circular plug I am referring to.

 

 

 

 

 

The link to the circular plug I'm looking at is here...

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/felpro-circular-plug-es-72418/10942906-P?searchTerm=valve+cover+gasket

 

And is permatex ultra grey or ultra black better?

No you do not need those. Ultra black is what many are using.

One thing I noticed doing this job is that all of the bolts were not the same length. There were 3 different lengths on the pass side and two different lengths on the drivers side. Make sure to stick each bolt back in the same hole it came out of.

2007 Outback XT; I only did the passenger side.

I removed the breather hoses (they almost broke and are very brittle) but I didn't remove my plugs (they were replaced recently). I got the other hoses to stay out of the way enough and I also did a couple of practice placements of the cover before adding RTV so I could be confident that I didn't rub any beads before mating the cover to the head.

I only noticed two different bolt lengths (not three - but maybe I'm wrong) but the passenger top rear corner bolt ended up not going in all the way before it bottomed out and looks like it could go in another 1/8" so I must have misread (mirrored) my own drawing but the longer ones went down the front of the cover. I did not bottom out each bolt since it said 4.7ft-lbs and I hit that before the bottom on most if not all bolts but the one I mentioned. Maybe this one isn't tight enough and another one is not biting? I also realize I don't know my alphabet since I started with the top center, then bottom, then alternating corners.

Anyone know which length bolts go where? Would I compromise the seal if I took out each bolt one at a time and measured it?

I didn't jack up the motor and only put RTV on the head, not the cover since I didn't have that extra room. I didn't read enough of this post to see I needed a larger bead. It was leaking this morning after startup and warming. Tonight I'll get my scope camera down there and try to find out where it's coming from. It seemed to be up front on the exhaust. I didn't pull the half-moons out and didn't goop all their surfaces, just the gasket surface; I didn't think to take them out.

I used a very minimal amount of Ultra Grey (the existing sealant was also grey) and cleaned the surfaces well. I would not recommend a razor blade since I've seen surfaces scarred with metal blades before. I used a piece of credit card (hard edged plastic) which will not score the aluminum.

I did get my 5/8" torque wrench on most bolts but for 2-3 I finally used a crow's foot socket/wrench for something! If you use these, the proper way to get torque right is with the crows foot at 90 degree angle so it doesn't add or subtract overall wrench length. This was a bit tricky.

I only let it idle to check for leaks since driving can cause the wind to blow the oil around. It wasn't smoking at all, just drops from the exhaust cover, but maybe it wasn't hot enough since I didn't actually run up the RPMs.

So I couldn't find any leaks while idling in the driveway for a good period last night. The old oil in the crud inside the exhaust cover began to liquefy and drip but not a drop from the motor anywhere.

I think my valve cover seal was not actually leaking now even with my minimal silicone bead, there is zero evidence of a leak along the seal.

After a drive, there is still smoke coming up from somewhere between the turbo and intake manifold. Definitely oil based. The top surface of the motor around the intake is moist (the little bit I can see). The steering pump was recently replaced and this could residual ATF but this is the same amount and smell I had before the pump was done so I don't think that's it (time will tell, if it finishes burning off).

Oil wouldn't come through the head gasket on to of the motor would it? I've not had to add any thing but a little oil now and again.

At what point is it critical to do the head gaskets? I'm going to add the little blue bottle of stop leak which I failed to do 45k miles ago with timing job. I hope this is not the issue.

What does a head gaskets job cost and what else is worth doing if that is to be done? Should I just look for a younger motor to swap in for the cost of a major overhaul?

2.5 turbo motors normally don't have the HG issues as the 2.5i's do.

We do say to get the car off the factory tune asap. at least Cobb AP stage 1 is better then stock for the engines.

I have never used that blue Subaru stuff in my coolant systems. Both my cars have Preston 50/50 or Peak Global in them for coolant.

You may want to pick up a can of Gunk engine cleaner and spray it on top of the cool engine and wash off what's there. then you can see how clean it is and then watch for leaks.

2.5 turbo motors normally don't have the HG issues as the 2.5i's do.

Why would head gaskets be less of an issue for turbos?

because other shit breaks first!

Glad I found this thread. Just finished reading it all.

I am having basically all the same symptoms listed (leaking around the the VCs, oil dripping on the uppipe, which has caused it to crack and leak in the Grimmspeed flex, smoking due to previous), But I am also throwing the misfire cylinder #3 (P0303) code. Chance that I'm just lucky and having two different annoying problems, or might it be a head gasket issue?

Also looks like my water pump might be leaking after 64k miles on the Gates one I had installed.

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.