Oil leaking from wire cover bolt holes

[PurpleHazel]

I've had that puddle of oil we've apparently all seen on these valve covers at one time or another since I got this car. Finally removed the valve cover, cleaned & prepped it for painting. I had three other people besides myself check this thing over to look for cracks and we could find nothing. I REALLY expected to find one. I'd already changed the oil cap and there was no oil in the spark plugs.

So I get it all painted, polished & pretty, used new gaskets, etc. I did not have the wire cover on previously, but the bolts were all there. Added the wire cover to make everything pretty and let the car idle for darn near an hour with no leaks. Drove it two days, checked under the wire cover and the dang puddle was back.

Soooo.... cleaned it up again to add dye, but as it turns out it wasnt even needed. Drove about five miles, making sure to get on it just a bit (for diagnostic purposes only, of course ).

Here's what I found.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

This is the top right. The top left is leaking a tiny bit as well. Apparently you've got to get the oil pressure up a bit to get this to happen. There was NO SIGN of a crack, but obviously there's a defect of some sort in there (duh).

Anyone else have this problem or a fix? We threw some RTV in there today thinking it couldn't hurt. I'm going to give that a good 24 hours to cure and then put it to the test. I'm thinking about trying to hunt down some little orings that might fit snug around the bolts, under the cover. I REALLY don't want to go hunting after another valve cover after just getting this one painted.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Sounds like a vc cracked somewhere, how about the oil cap is it leaking.

 

[PurpleHazel]

Sounds like a vc cracked somewhere, how about the oil cap is it leaking.

It's the wire cover bolt holes for sure. Oil cap was the first thing I tried. I went ahead and threw the dye in anyway and it was painfully obvious. Also, no oil on top of the wire cover.

 

[Mr PopUps]

Those dont go all the way down, so either someone drilled all the way through, or something else is wrong because its physically impossible.

 

[PurpleHazel]

Those dont go all the way down, so either someone drilled all the way through, or something else is wrong because its physically impossible.

Exactly. Impossible. But there it is.

Just had the cover off to paint it and the holes are NOT drilled through. And four people, including myself, scoured this thing for cracks. WTF