It all depends on how much oil is leaking into the spark plug well, if it's just 1/4" or so every 60k miles then it won't really affect performance. If it's covering the spark plug then it will cause misfiring and also damage the coil. Dirty oil conducts electricity, especially when you're working in the 50k+ volt range.

It's pretty easy to just put some of the permatex ultra grey that you're going to use for the valve cover gasket onto the spark plug well seals to help seal them up better.

 

Thanks for the reply Cleric670,

Do you happen to know a link to a detailed overview of how to apply the RTV fix? Assuming I am already going into to replace the valve cover gaskets what is the optimal procedure to RTV the spark plug tubes?

Thank you!
N

 

This is as good as I can draw Basically you just spread RTV around the existing spark plug well gasket, clean the surface really well first with brakekleen on a rag so the RTV will adhere and not drip off when you turn it upside down, don't go crazy with the stuff a little goes a long way. If you goo a bunch into the inside of the spark plug well try to clean it up with a screwdriver and a small rag.

 

looks easy enough...why are people blowing $ on new covers, drilling holes etc, when they can just do this...thanks for the diagram helps a lot.

 

It's not guaranteed to work and the seals are still pretty shat, on second look my drawing looks pretty shat too. You just want to make sure you have RTV between the contact point of the spark plug well and the spark plug well gasket it makes contact on the "cone" part of the gasket.

 

$70 for a set of ebay valve covers with gaskets isn't blowing money. Oem ones get pricey

 

I saved my oem valve covers when I switched them with some cheapo brand. Passenger VC gasket is leaking again so I'm going to put the oem ones back in. Seems people have had success with rtv on the seals

 

They don't look like it to me, but can you confirm that those are not the Beck/Arnley covers? My plan, based on what I've read here, was to use the BA ones when I eventually do have to replace mine. However if people are finding those aren't lasting long either, I'll probably just spring for OEM ones.

 

The covers I posted are oem. For about two years I was using covers from jdmspeed. They had good reviews at the time, but not very good anymore. To my surprise, the tube seals were dry when I switched back to oem over the weekend. Other reviews say they went thru two sets in just a few months. If you're not trying to rtv the seals then I would stick with oem. Someone here said they have used rtv on their turbo builds so I trust it

 

As long as the PCV system doesn't have any obstructions like something physically blocking the airflow inside it then you're not going to get pressure buildup in the head that's going to push oil past the seal.

I've got a couple years and about 25k miles on fel pro seals inside my OEM covers and have no leaks, and I don't expect to have any in the future either.

@FreshLikeAG that picture you posted, were those the aftermarket covers you installed? Someone has drilled them out and installed aftermarket seals because that's basically exactly what mine looked like after I put the Fel Pro seals in.

 

Those are my old oem covers. That's what I installed last weekend replacing the aftermarket ones. I put the rtv over the seals for peace of mind. This was the second time replacing the VC gaskets in two years. Went with felpro gaskets this time

When I replaced the gaskets the first time I was expecting to find oil in the number ?6? spark plug tube like most. So I just bought cheap valve covers to do it all at once. Well, the oem ones were dry as a bone so I held onto that set. The reviews on the aftermarket ones I used all talk about leaking so that's why I just put rtv on the seals and went back to oem

I replaced all the pcv hoses with silicone. That just leaves the pcv valve, right?

 

Yeah, you can just unscrew it to remove, then spray it out good with brake cleaner. However I would physically blow air into all the hoses from both directions to make sure you don't have something blocking airflow inside the valve cover gasket tube/baffles, same with the intake tube, intake manifold, etc.

I think valve cover baffle clogging is a minor issue for these engines. While you have them off it's easy to check and clean if necessary, oily grime gets built up and starts to restrict airflow. Under normal driving conditions it's not an issue until you're hard on the throttle and there's a lot of blowby gas then it can't move ALL the gasses out of the valve covers.

 

Thanks

Used two cans of brake cleaner on the valve covers before installing them. I'll clean the pcv valve this weekend

 

Does this apply to valve covers/gaskets?

I had Infiniti replace every gasket from both the valve cover ones up back when I first got the de coupe, around 6k miles later and I've noticed some leakage on both front outside corners.. before the leak was terrible on both sides, now its just enough to smell oil from both of the front corners slowly dripping onto the heat shields.

So couple of questions..

Is this one of those things I wont be able to tell what's going on until it’s all opened up again?
Or can I start somewhere like the PCV system and begin eliminating things 1by1 before taking everything apart?
Then again is it just more likely the valve covers are warped? (Believe they are still the original oem pair, so 17 years old and as far as I can tell I'm the only one that's had any major repairs or maintenance done to this G)


It’s an '03 6mt coupe with around 130k on it

 

They probably didn't use enough permatex ultra grey rtv around those corners.