LLY: D/S valve cover leak after head gasket change

[thunder550]

I finished my head gaskets and took the truck for a drive. Came home and noticed oil dripping off the driver's side rear of the block. I was able to get under the truck and shine a light up, and I could see a small gap between the top of the head and the valve cover.

I assumed that I just hadn't seated the valve cover correctly, so last night I loosened everything up and readjusted, then started with the bottom row of bolts, tightened, then worked my way up to the middle row, then the top row. Took the truck for a test drive last night and everything seemed fine, but when I got up this morning there was a decent size puddle of oil under the truck again, and it looked like oil had been seeping out of the rear driver's side corner of the valve cover all night.

I quickly stuck my head under the truck and couldn't see the same gap that I did yesterday, but didn't have time to look closely sicne I had to get to work.

One thing worth mentioning...when I was messing around with the valve cover loose last night, when I had it seated on the two pins, I could very slightly rock it back and forth, almost like it was warped or something. Anyone have any insight? I did reuse the VC gasket when reassembling from the head gasket change, but everything looked fine when I inspected it before putting it back on.

 

[IOWA LLY]

Replace the gasket......

 

[chevyburnout1]

Could have had the gasket slightly pop out of the groove. That would explain the 'teetering'.

Edit: Nevermind, not an LB7 lol

 

[prodiesel804]

i have seen some hit a stud on the lower row.

 

[thunder550]

Bought a new valve cover gasket, hopefully that will fix it. It's leaking from the tab above the #8 glow plug. You can see a little bigger space there, not sure what the deal is. I got everything removed from the cover tonight, will pull the cover tomorrow and see what's up. There was actually a steady stream of oil running off that spot when I checked again today.

I'll check to see if it's against a stud, thanks for the tip. If so, I'm assuming I can just clearance it a little bit with a grinding wheel or something?

 

[thunder550]

Found the issue, rear stud sticks up higher and was interfering with valve cover like prodiesel said. Ground about 1/8" of aluminum off the area where the stud was contacting the cover and it's all sealed up good now.

 

[prodiesel804]

glad you gotit figured out, i hate leaks.

 

[Veikra]

This warning should be put on the ARP headstuds box or at least on the merchand's websites. I had no ideas about that.

Same thing here, just found out about it and gonna have to clearance that as well. 2nd person to suffer from it this week... And I lost 3 litres of the top amsoil oil at 120$/2.5 quarts

 

[Veikra]

Confirmed , easily slid a feeler gauge right between the head and cover valve

 

[thunder550]

At least you know what the issue is now!

 

[Harbin_22]

I know you already know it is sticking up too much, but that stud is probably not seated all the way down. Shouldn't be that many threads sticking out. Did you clean all the holes out before putting them in? How did you tighten the stud itself down in the block?

 

[thunder550]

When I did mine, I did clean out the holes. Since multiple people are having this problem and it's always in the same place, I don't think it's debris in the hole.

Per ARP's instructions, the studs should be finger tight only.

 

[Harbin_22]

I still ran mine in with a wrench and then backed them out, then went finger tight. Hope it doesn't give you trouble later on.

 

[thunder550]

Me too, I don't want to do that job again...I thought about loosening the nut and running the stud down in further, but I figured that might cause sealing problems.

 

[Evan@InglewoodTrans]

If you clean the hole properly and chase the threads the stud should go deep enough not to have this issue.

 

[xtremebikr04]

That stud looks like it's not seated fully, all the studs I've done you only have a couple threads showing above the nut.

 

[thunder550]

Yes, that's the problem, it's not seated all the way.

 

[Veikra]

Mine looks exactly like Thunder. And I chased the treads, and retested the original bolt which was sitting perfectly. Then smoothly the stud screwed in by hand all the way down

I'm pretty sure this hole is not as deep as the others, At least it's not on my engine.

 

[Veikra]

Here's ANOTHER engine (mine) with the same problem I fixed friday.

Valve cover ground down roughly 1/8 deep where the end of the bolt was.

I had 6 visible tread from the bolt. Maybe 5 sticking out.

 

[gmc502]

well theres good info on both issues.My studs went in all the way and had like 3 threads showing above nit.
I know I have an LB7 but I'm building an LLY to swap out my engine in April.Want injector changes to be easy.