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Mazda 323,Mazda 626 & Mazda 929Whether the compact 323, the mid sized 626, or the full sized 929, these vehicles remain very popular even though production has stopped.
Not too long ago I bought a Mazda 323F a 1500cc engine (awesome car so far). However the valve cover keeps leaking on the exhaust side. I have replaced the gasket multiple times making sure there was RTV gasket maker on all the corners described in the workshop manual. Sadly no improvement, in a hopeless attempt I even put RTV all along the gasket (double gasket as it were).... Sadly still leaky.
I came to the conclusion that the aluminium valve cover had to be replaced due to warping. I could buy one second hand for €50, but it's no guarantee that it will be straight.
Say I buy it. Can I straighten the valve cover in some way? Aluminium is soft... but it can easily tear to my knowledge.
I will make sure to use the correct torque setting when tensioning the new valve cover.
I am curious what you think! Maybe a stupid question, but hey! There are no stupid question only stupid people :P
so, to answer your question YES.
A couple things to stop the practice doing.
Use sealer only in area's needed like corners or to secure a gasket to install it.
Never double up on any gasket. This will be a recipe for creating a leak.
There are 2 ways to surface your valve cover.
1) take it to an engine machine shop. (easy way)
2) Do it yourself (DIY) harder
If you choose to di it you first need to find which are is warped. To do this placing the valve cover on a hard flat surface and then look carefully to see any raised areas. Mark it with a permeant marking pen. Then get several full sheets of 220 wet and securely tape them together with 2-inch packing tape to cover the complete valve cover and about an extra 2-3 inches border. Now you can wet the paper and slowly start to sand with equal pressure on the and slowly surface the bottom of the valve cover. you can either continue and completely resurface the bottom or stop when you have about .010-.020 of measured Clearnce.
This procedure will work on most all both aluminum and thermal plastics valve covers.
Keep in mind however I do not have a picture or phiscally have a valve cover for your engine so without seeing that these procedure is genic in nature. Ther are some valver cover that are more challenging to re-surface but still can be done.
If you can post a picture of both the top and bottom of your valve cover that would be helpful?
Thankyou for your thorough reply! I have added picture of the bottom and top of the valve cover! The rubber gasket sits in a grove along the edge of the valve cover itself. Thankyou for your help so far!
Thois type do not warp very often. You can only surface about .015 to max .025 before you lose gasket securing area. So do your clearance measurements before you start.
Alright time for a update. Otherwise this will again be post without a conclusion, which I hate hahah.
I bought a "new" aluminium valve cover from another mazda 323F for 60 euros (172000 km, mine had 232000), which after measuring appeared to be ever so slightly less warped. Then I bought a gasket, this time not aftermarket but an OEM one for 30 euros. Then I did the following as per instruction of the workshop manual for this car.
1. Cleaned the surrounding of the valve cover to make sure nothing would fall into the engine.
2. Removed old valve cover
3. Cleaned surface to be shiny and completely free of gasket material, oil and dirt (did this with a plastic scraper and some benzine/whitespirit).
4. Applied new black RTV to all spots desribed in the workshop manual and let this sit for 10 min untouched as described in its instruction. In the mean time I cleaned the new valve cover to be ready for placement with brake cleaner and white spirit and cleaned it up all residu.
5. Installed new gasket and place gasket on engine head.
6. Checked if gasket was sitting OK and started tightening all bolts by hand.
7. Then I grabbed my torque wrench and set it to 2Nm. Tightend everything in pattern described in workshop manual. Then again with 4Nm, 6Nm, 8Nm and finally at 9Nm.
8. I cleaned off the old leaked oil.
The workshop manual specifically described that tightening should be done in 4-6 rounds.
9. I did not start the car, but let the RTV cure for 24 hours (as by instruction)
After 2 weeks of driving (300km or so) there is no sweating or leaks visible so far.
I call a succes for now! I will keep checking it for the weeks to come, hopefully everything is alright.
Thois type do not warp very often. You can only surface about .015 to max .025 before you lose gasket securing area. So do your clearance measurements before you start.
Thois type do not warp very often. You can only surface about .015 to max .025 before you lose gasket securing area. So do your clearance measurements before you start.
Originally Posted by FranklinWrights
Thois type do not warp very often. You can only surface about .015 to max .025 before you lose gasket securing area. So do your clearance measurements before you start.
LOL if you are going to copy my quote and post it as if it were your thoughts and idea's , I should warn you I have poor writing skills. LOL Anyone that knows me can see when my responses are copied both here and many other forums.
Don't worry I do not really think about it as plagiarizing a member's responses but as a compliment that you know what I post is accurate, correct and many times empirical.
Valve cover warped
