Valve cover bolt leaking? Help

tsw940s

Engine was leaking oil so cleaned it up and found the source of the leak to be one of the bolts on the valve cover (seems strange - I’ll attach an image). I’m supposed to be driving Wollongong to Melbourne tomorrow. Is it safe if I top up and monitor engine oil? Can I just replace / silicone the bolt and deal with replacing the gasket when I’m back in Melbourne? Thanks

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ramrod

You could have a much worse leak than that minor one, as long as there is some oil in the pan (showing at least something on the dipstick), you will make it

Ex850R

Is the hardware all the same tension?

tsw940s

Ex850R not sure, I didn’t change the gasket last and don’t have a torque wrench with me

ramrod

Torque wrench is not necessary and most will snap a stud trying to torque.

You develop a feel in your hands for how tight an M6 thread should be.

If you do want to ensure correct torque, buy or borrow a 1/4” torque wrench and tighten to 6Nm (no more or you’ll say I told you so)

Ex850R

ramrod

Yeah , this is wy i say tension , just feel the others and see if its as tight.

John_Fraser

'81 242 B21F Normally aspirated: I have what may be a similar problem of oil leaking out around several cam cover nuts. I've changed the gasket and glued it down with a good gasket sealer. However it still leaked around the nuts.

Further research showed the oil seemed to be coming up out of the block around the studs and then up through the cover holes. Not sure what to try next. I tested the two crankcase breather hoses going to the intake and also the drain hose going down into the sump. All Were clear. Engine is rebuilt.

jamesinc

John_Fraser The studs go into blind holes, so there shouldn't be any oil coming from within.

Even if the nut had a pinhole in it, you shouldn't see any oil coming through it, the stud is surrounded on all sides by gasket.

I'm not sure why you would have this problem. The gasket can be tricky to seal fully in tight bend over the cam cap, but usually only a dab of RTV in each corner is required before fitting the gasket.

But in saying all this, I have seen multiple people on Oz Volvo lately, including myself, experiencing problems with valve cover gaskets failing quickly by delaminating, so maybe it's just a bad valve cover gasket?

Ex850R

Seal washers on the nuts

Ex850R

jamesinc Ahh yes, the Ehrling? Ones?

Out of production iirc.

Think Mark has some, dunno his experience with them.