Has anyone ever had the valve covers themselves go bad?

My car has a lot of residual oil on top of both covers only and burning oil smell. Originally, there was oil leaking out, so I replaced the gaskets awhile ago. I don't see anymore leaks down the sides of the engine. It's all concentrated around the coil packs, pcv, oil cap, and filler neck.

I've replaced pcv valve twice and the filler gasket, since I've owned the car. Gaskets about 1.5 years ago, but can't figure out where the oil is coming from.

only other thing I can think of is the pcv passages in the covers are clogged or all my spark plug seals are shot. Only one pkug had oil when I did the gaskets though.

Z1 has the whole kit on sale for 388, so I might go ahead and purchase it, but looking for some opinions before I do that.

 

Its not a serious issue u could be misfiring due to oil in the plugs, and maybe increase in oil consumption. I replaced my covers when I changed my Spark plugs I also only had oil in 1 of em. U can DIY and drill holes on your valve covers and replace the O Rings that go around your plugs.
https://g35driver.com/forums/engine-...asket-set.html
Some people dont like to drill the holes and rather just replace the whole cover. I have a set of used Valve Covers if youre interested.

 

I'm not misfiring though and never have. I know about the hole saw method and don't really want to hack them all up, lol. I'm just wondering if there is anything else I might be missing or not checking that explain the oil leak I am experiencing.

 

If there's oil inside the spark plug well then it's coming in from those seals, it's actually really easy to drill them out if you have access to a drill press. I built a jig out of 2x4's and used c-clamps to hold it down on the drill press table to stabilize the valve cover, made for an easy 1 man job.

 

Yea, I know if it's in the spark plug tubes it's from the seals. My problem is it's all over only the top of the of the valve covers, PCV area, coil packs, and oil filler area.

I've replaced the VC gaskets, oil filler gasket, PCV valve, PCV hoses are Z1 silicone (I've thought maybe oil is weeping through, since they're saturated in it), VTC solenoid gaskets, and used RTV in the correct spots. All of the oil residue is just concentrated on the top of the covers in the coil pack area near the PCV areas on both sides. Everything below and on the sides of he cover is pretty much dry since I change the gaskets. I'll try putting some UV dye in and see where it leaks.

I'm just curious if anyone else has had a leak like this where it only leaks on the top of the covers.

Do you know of anyway to test if the PCV passages are clogged in the valve covers?

 

Ohhh yeah that's odd then. Remove all the hoses from the PCV system, blow air through them to ensure there isn't a blockage (complete line set to the intake). Take off the PCV valves and try blowing air through the bottom, you should be able to make a seal with a gloved hand so you don't have to actually put your lips on the icky oily thing. Typically though if you shake it and it rattles then it's working fine. A clogged PCV valve can definitely push oil past the seals (or blow out valve cover gaskets) it does generate significant pressure). Normally they clog in the OPEN position which causes idle issues but they CAN clog in the CLOSED position as well which would cause excessive pressure.

I think you could test the passages in the valve cover with a vacuum hand pump, there's quite a bit of difference between sucking vacuum on the volume of a very short piece of tube vs the volume of the entire valve cover. I do remember something about how the passage is actually very narrow and CAN clog.

 

Good info, I've been looking for a reason to buy a MityVac, lol. I don't have any idle issues or driveability problems though. I did get a CEL the other day, but haven't scanned the code, since I had to head out of town. It did come on right after filling up the gas though, so I have a feeling it could be an evap code leak. I've had this leak or blow-by I would call it for a fairly long time.

The only thing that can make sense to me is a clogged internal PCV system in the valve cover that is causing my issue. On my Audi I can at least take the baffles out of the covers to clean them up...on the G not so much. But, on the Audi it's over 300 dollars to replace the PCV system vs. 10 dollars for the G, lol.

I took a leap of faith and bought a pair of after market valve covers off eBay for 68 bucks. Apparently, almost 200 other people have bought them, so we'll see how they work out.

Hopefully, it will resolve my issue. I'll report back on the fitment of the aftermarket covers and if I still have the leak.