How Difficult is this

How hard is it to change a valve-cover gasket on a 1988 Honda Accord LXi?
Seems easy enough...take valve cover off, remove old gasket, put new one on
(apply sealing chemical too?) put valve cover back on & torque bolts to
specification. Anything special or specific I should know? (I obviously
have never done this before)

Jonathan

 

It's very easy. The only possible minor hangups are

-- figuring out the first time what interference to remove. E.g. the breather
hose from the valve cover top to the air intake, upstream of the throttle.

-- putting the valve cover in place so the gasket seats properly (e.g. no
twisting)

-- tightening down evenly on the valve cover bolts. It's not difficult to mess
up the seating of the gasket. Preferably, you should use a torque wrench.

www.autozone.com has step-by-step instructions for your 1988 Accord. It's under
"engine, engine mechanical."Alternatively, look over the procedure for some of
the Honda models at
http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/workshopmanuals2.html

I recommend you change any grommets (seals that go around the valve cover
screws/bolts) and spark plug tube seals in the valve cover at the same time.

 

In addition to the above comments, you'll want to put some ultra gray
silicone on the corners of the valve cover gasket right were it makes a
sharp turn to go up over the two end cam towers.

By the way, the grommets really only need to be changed if they've gotten
hardened up or cracked. Note that an '88 Accord LXi doesn't use the spark
plug tube seals found on later models.

Eric

 

Which happened to my 91 Civic's grommets sometime around 150k miles, 12 years of
age. It turned out to be the main source of an oil drip I was having. Took me
several months to figure out where the leak was... Doh (for me), look on the
valve cover casing and note the film of oil around the grommets, slowly but
*surely* seeping down the sides of the engine.

As I've posted recently, though, the "journey" was fun and instructive, and the
car probably could stand replacement of the other seals.

Darned grommets (piece of rubber fitted inside a metal case, about the size of
two quarters, tops) typically cost upwards of $2.50 each.