Leaking some oil. Need help.

[RicciDSM]

So I just bought the car a couple weeks ago, its a 97 Talon TSi FWD. It looks like the valve cover has a major oil leak.

Heres some pics:

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I really got on the car hard tonight and upon coming to a quick stop, smoke filled the street for about a minute. So I pulled over and by then my manifold was glowing red and oil had dripped onto them causing the smoke. So im like 99% sure I need a valve cover gasket. Can anyone confirm this? I just wanna make sure. Im losing oil somehow, I was pretty low tonight and want to get this fixed ASAP.

Thanks

 

[turboglenn]

DSM's are like planes in the air force, the saying goes "if it's not leaking oil it needs refilled" anyway, valve cover gasket is a 20 - 30 minute job and is under 20 bucks, just hit up autozone or whereever and buy the gasket and some ultra grey silicone (use the grey SPARINGLY)

 

[RicciDSM]

DSM's are like planes in the air force, the saying goes "if it's not leaking oil it needs refilled" anyway, valve cover gasket is a 20 - 30 minute job and is under 20 bucks, just hit up autozone or whereever and buy the gasket and some ultra grey silicone (use the grey SPARINGLY)

That was my next question, where to get one. Thanks

Yeah I was hoping it was just the valve cover gasket, since its not that big of a job. Gives me a chance to clean up my valve cover also, and possibly paint it.

One final question. What type of oil is recommended? I was planning on using a full synthetic 10w-30 oil...am I making the correct choice on this?

 

[LiquidX]

Everyone has a preference on oil weight. 10w-30 is what is recommended for our car during most of the year. I've recently switched over to Rotella T 15w-40 as it's made for turbo and high demand engines. Granted I am on a fresh rebuild and don't need to worry about carbon or sludge deposits breaking loose due to detergents.

 

[RicciDSM]

Well my engine is nowhere near new. The car is about to hit 146k miles on stock engine. All stock internals/turbo etc ect. Only upgrades are Intake/BOV/IC Pipe but I wouldnt even count them. I fear my turbo doesnt have much life left, but I still wanna use quality oil.