hi all,

was doing some maintenance the other day, replaced my spark plugs to cure a slight shake at idle. most if the spark plugs didn't look bad but 3 of the plugs had a decent amount of oil in the holes and on the threads of the plugs when i pulled them. I have researched this topic and there's numerous threads out there. I don't want to pay 200$/ cover, or get maxima covers and modify them to fit, so i ordered the R&Dfactory grommet and alignment tool, problem is that the bitches took my money and 0 communication back on shipping, status or anything. I am going to try to submit a claim through paypal to get my money back if i don't get an answer by end of week.

question is, has anyone else tried a different solution to drill out the old grommets? why can't you remove the baffle cover ans simply put it back with new grommets? has anyone tried to put rtv around the old grommets to seal them?

PS if anyone has that alignment tool they would like to sell, i would gladly buy it

thanks for the help!!

I don't remember using an alignment tool when I did mine and I got the RD factory kit a couple of years ago. I don't think they sent me anything but the seals and instructions for what size hoile saw to use. I just eyeballed the alignment and was close enough. I think you can get by without the tool if you can get the seals. Rockauto has Fel-pro seals but other members have said they don't work when I recommended them to another poster. I have no first hand experience with them. Maybe it's an option if you can't get the R&D factory ones. Good luck!

thanks! yea im also not sure if the R&D seals are special or different from the regular ones like fel-pro or beck and arnley. if they aren't then ill just get my money back and order regular ones...

When I replaced my cover gaskets a while back, I found a bit of oil in the tubes. I rtv'd the tube seals on the valve covers and have since found zero oil inside them. Also, since I change my oil quite often (4000-4500 miles...yes very ****!), I use conventional oil which as we all know won't find its way through older gaskets as easy as synthetics will. I can say I'm pretty confident that the combination of the rtv and conventional oil helped to fix any oil leaks into my plug tubes. I have a 2005 6MT with 110,000 and it runs perfectly, zero valve train noise and only consumes about half a quart every oil change.

Just be sure not to over do it on the rtv.

I also change my oil very frequently, especially on these high strung engines. Thanks for the info, you gave me the confirmation I needed. It's such a simple problem, yet such a PIA to fix because of dumb, overly conplicated engineering

No problem! I couldn't agree more... It's disappointing that something this simple requires so much to fix. Should have had interchangeable gaskets from the factory :/

just an update if anyone is interested, i should've done a diy on this but... i took the valve covers off, cleaned them, degreased them of oil, replaced the valve cover gaskets and put a bead of RTV (Black) silicone on the inside edge of the spark plug holes in the valve cover and it worked! so anyone that wants to save a few hundred $$ this is a worthwhile fix and the procedure is the same if replacing valve covers.

You can also replace just the spark plug tube seal grommets, the part didn't used to be available but they are now, costs about $20 for a set of 6.

i've seen them but i wasn't sure how I would take out the old ones without hacking up the valve cover. If my method starts seeping again then ill try to get the new grommets. do you have a link for them btw? i'd like to keep this in my back pocket just in case. thanks!

Google "g35 spark plug tube seal grommet", yes you have to "hack up" the valve cover, place shop rags around the area so you don't get crap in the baffles, use a drill press with a 1_7/8" hole saw. Remove just a little big of plastic, about 3/16", this cuts off the plastic holding down the tube seal, then use a screwdriver to pry it out. Clean it THOROUGHLY, apply a bead of RTV inside the valve cover, push the new tube seal into place, dry 24hr, DONE.

It's actually -really- simple.

thanks for the info, its gonna be my next step if they leak again... its still sucha silly design though, why make something so simple so hard to change? its a damn grommet..

Yeah I question the design also, it would work just as well if it didn't have that ring of plastic that retains the grommet, that's why there's no issue in removing it.