Valve Cover Gasket ( for dummies )

[izzyandsue]

I finnaly got to do the gasket on my 80. Took over 2 hours this morning, lots of contortioning under the hood to reach all the giblets. FSM is a must as well as other posts in the 80 section. Need to have the gasket, spark plug gaskets, rubber mallet, regular tools.

First remove the airbox and hoses from intake.

There are 3 12mm boots holding the airbox to the body. Move it so you have room to sit in there.

Remove the hoses from valve cover to throttle body (tb), and 3 electrical connectors from tb.

Remove hoses from EGR or whatever this thing is. 2 in front, one in back, one underneath. Then remove it

Remove the front spark plug wire cover, the unplug the number 3 plug and set it aside. You will need this out to reach lower right bolt on tb.

12mm socket to remove the 4 tb bolts. Top ones are shorter than lower.

 

[izzyandsue]

Use rubber mallet to tap tb until loose. Mine was glued to the intake with this blue gunk. Careful, there's a hidden coolant hose on the lower left of the tb, turn it 90 degrees anticlockwise pry it off.

There is a lot of slack on the tb to now move it towards the passenger side, use tie wraps to secure it to the wipers motor loosely

Now with 12mm socket, remove this bracket

Now use a 10mm socket to remove all the bolts from valve cover. Afterwards, use a big flat screwdriver to gently pry cover off. Inspect the valves and make grunting noises to pretend you have a clue what you are looking at. Clean the area where the gasket would go from any debris.

Place cover on yoga mat. At least you found a use for it. Use a flat screwdriver to pry seals off spark plug tube seals.

 

[izzyandsue]

The old and new seals look different, same color though. The new is all Toyota. Use the rubber mallet to gently tap seals in place.

Then replace the gasket into the valve cover, slide it back into place, replace bolts and tighten them by hand only with 10mm socket, no wrench.

Replace tb gasket with OEM, and re-attach all the hoses, bolt tb back in place, replace intake hose and air filter can. That's it all set. I decided to Simple Green the engine to get it clean. After driving a few times to pick up mulch today, valve cover shows no leaks, clean and dry.

 

[KevinNY]

Thanks for the write up. I need to do the same but also do new plugs and pull the upper manifold to clean out my egr passageways and do new vacuum hoses.

 

[Green Hell Mustang]

Quality post Izzy. I read this in your voice.

 

[izzyandsue]

Didn't know you had a Cuban accent!

 

[RedHeadedStepChild]

Quality post Izzy. I read this in your voice.

Funny, I heard it the same way in my head.

 

[GarnerFJ40]

Nice, I ended up needing a 90 degree angle socket adapter for the furthest driver side bolt. I also broke one bolt, so replacing with new ones will only set you back $13 if they're looking old. Also while the cover is off, makes it a good time to redo the distributor seal, since you can mark the dizzy gear location and replace without having to do TDC adjustments.

The blue gunk "should" be replaced with a new metal spacer for the throttlebody per the FSM. I didn't replace mine, but at least it was there.

 

[izzyandsue]

Great point on the dizzy gear. I have one sitting on the bench in the garage. I was so excited that I didn't break anything and it didn't take me 3 days of agony to get it done, so I closed it all up and forgot the little round gasket on the Toyota bag... Drove about 100 miles so far, no leaks.

 

[GarnerFJ40]

Yeah, I changed mine and mine leaked for about a month before the weather and my time lined up. Must have nicked the back corner wrestling it up and over the spark plug tubes. I thought I had it pinched, but taking it out it was a complete tear.