Stupid 420a's!!!

[spooner_dee]

ok from reading and searching through the forums am i to assume that my valve cover gasket is bad? maybe like 1-2 years ago i had my timing belt changed along with my head gasket, my valve cover gasket and my water pump, car ran beautiful after that then i got a nasty hesitation problem starting, that turned out to be bad plugs and wires, now its back, so i was checking my wires and for arching and tightness on the pulgs, and i got to number 4 (farthest to the right) and when i turned it a bit i heard a nasty grinding noise and i said OH SHAT!!!! so i pull the plug and OIL and dirt, i look down inside OIL AND DIRT. not to mention my car has been leaking oil for some time not, not badly but after an oil change, id get maybe 1500 miles or so and have to put in a half a quart or so maybe a lil more. So does this sound like my head gasket is leaking? if so what can i expect to pay to have it replaced... AGAIN any ideas? thanks guys

 

[Doug99RS]

Well, if you paid for it last time you could expect to pay the same thing again THIS time. It's doubtful that the problem is indeed the engine and more likely that whoever did the work last time did not do a very good job.

If you have oil in the spark plug tubes then NO it's not the headgasket. The spark plug tube seals are leaking and it's an easy fix. Replace all four spark plug tube seals and the valve cover gasket and the oil leakage in this particular area will stop. These engines consume alot of oil anyways and a quart between oil changes is nothing to worry about unless you don't check and add between changes.

If the headgasket was NOT a multi-layer steel headgasket and the head bolts were not torqued down to the revised torque specs (not the same ones as found in the chiltons manual) then you can expect the headgasket to go back to leaking again in the future.
Doug

 

[spooner_dee]

thanks for the info, im not sure what the cost was last time, beacuse as i said i had ALOT of other things done at the same time, but my total bill for the whole job came to like $1,000 but that was cause of the timing belt and all the "work" included. I went to a private garage around here for all that, i heard nothing but good stuff about them and they were cheaper then the dealership. SO i guess to get the RIGHT gasket i should go to the dealer itself? i just hope i dont end up smaking my forehead saying "dang i should of brought the vasaline" any recomendations on better spark plug wires? i dont need super performance ones just decent ones that will last me awhile. thanks again