oil leaking out of valve cover

[Rubes]

Hello, I have just changed a valve cover gasket ( i had a previois post, thanks for the advice on that one.) on my 91 westy and it is still leaking, a very small drip on the driverside toward the front of the van. I am planning on redoing the gasket but I was wondering if there is any thing else that I should look out for such as warped valve covers etc.. I used cork valve covers.
Thanks for any advice.
Chris

also, how much oil should come out when you take off the covers.

[bucko]

Do you have a good "straight edge"? If so, place it on the engines head (valve cover removed of course), and see if you can slide feeler gauges between the straight edge and head (surface area that gasket mates to).

Check the valve cover this way too. More than likely the valve cover got twisted, or dented when you or a previous owner tried to remove it.

In rare cases the head mating survace gets pitted. Some folks have used small amounts of JB Weld on these pitted surfaces, sanded smooth, then a new cork gasket.

You can also apply a bead of silicone on both sides of the gasket, but I'm not a fan of this, as I've been told by some that if a piece of this silicone breaks off and gets into the oil passage gallies, it can ruin a bearing, or plug up a passage.
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Current VW drives: 1984 Westfalia

Past VW drives: 1967 Beetle, 1973 Beetle, 1977 Bus, 1971 Military Type 181

[Rubes]

Thanks for the tip. I was looking around on the forum and am wondering of I should be looking at o ring seals on the push rod? thanks again for the info .
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91 westy

[tencentlife]

Well, you have to make sure where the leak is coming from before you can fix it. So clean off the whole area under the valve cover seal and around the pushrod tube seals and see where the fresh oil emerges.

I've said it before, but the tools that get more use than any I own are a flashlight, a little adjustable dentist's mirror type thing, a bent scribe, and a clean rag. Because you should spend a lot of time poking around and looking for leaks before you tear into things, to be sure you're chasing the rabbit down the right hole.

[erhoads]

i had the same leak recently, a steady drip from yhe front of the left side valve cover, new gasket didnt fix it because the source of the oil remained. Many mechanics will claim you need to pull the heads to replace blown push rod seals but "no name garage" in Eugene Oregon put "cheater" tubes in from the outside, cost 150 bucks for two leakers and a buck for the new gasket.....no leak. e
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87 westfalia
2000 triumph speed triple

[bucko]

[tencentlife]

Umm, bucko, I think you might be mixing your models here. What you're saying is true of the aircooled T4 motor, about the wire clip 'n all, except those pushrod tubes don't stretch. They are rigid, and seal with o-rings around each end.

erhoads sig line mentions an '87, so his tubes have to be destroyed to remove them with the head on. Replacements have to be a spring-loaded, jointed tube, unless someone has come up with some other genius device that I haven't heard about.

Options are limited because unlike the T1's, for which choices in expandable tubes are myriad, the wbx has two different diameter ends: 21mm outboard, like a T1, but 25mm inboard.

VW makes a replacement tube that is expensive in price, cheap in quality, and on the whole a cruel joke because it leaks easily. I put 3 of them on one engine and every one began leaking badly within a few weeks.

Some T1 expandable tubes are made for ratio rockers, having the outboard end larger so that a pushrod running closer to the rocker shaft wouldn't rub against the tube. I did find a set that has 21mm and 24mm ends, and works well on a wbx when turned around. The cost is equivalent to 3 or 4 of the cheesebag VW replacements, and the quality and aesthetics are much better.

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=1395

There may be other ones that can work as well, I made the call about those and ended up getting a set. Nary a leak.

[bucko]

Now that I think about it, it was an earlier bus that I performed this operation on.

Sorry for the mis-understanding. I figured the wasserboxers also had this feature of being able to remove the push rod tubes without removing the heads.

Still, I'm not a fan of the "spring loaded" 2 piece tubes, as I tried a set from SCAT once on a 1600 Beetle. The leaked worse than the original one piece tubes.
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Current VW drives: 1984 Westfalia

Past VW drives: 1967 Beetle, 1973 Beetle, 1977 Bus, 1971 Military Type 181

[tencentlife]

Definitely the quality may vary. I'm using the Jaycee tubes, and they were well-made and don't leak at all. Turning them around actually improves the drainage pattern, as the inner tube is now on the uphill end.

I can't vouch for any other brands.