Bad valve cover gasket??? Oil in plug well

While replacing spark plugs in my 2012 4.0L v6 (88k miles) I encountered a significant amount of oil in the middle, passenger-side plug well. All other wells looked fine. Searching Taco world it sounds like this is most commonly a bad valve cover gasket. Is there an easy way to determine if this is the case? It looks like a doable, albeit involved repair. Is this something I should just have a shop do? any ideas on what that costs?

 

Theres a whole thread about the oil thing I don't think its a big deal but I will let someone else chime in. There was a whole discussion about this the other day

 

I did valve cover gaskets in my v6. Wasn’t heard just tedious and time consuming. I also have very little to no mechanic experience and that was my first big job. I searched online and found a 4Runner v6 write up a guy did and followed it. Worked fine

 

Dang!!!

 

I'm not sure what to consider "a lot" of oil, but that seems like a lot

 

Yeah that’s a lot of oil


I think if you have someone do it it’s like $600

but you could do it for much less if you have time, less than $200. It’s not hard just takes a while.

 

I would'nt get to excited where there is a will there's a way!

 

I guess I'll start reading up on gasket replacement and price it out vs whatever the shop quotes me. I'm just working out of a gravel driveway in front of a duplex. Not the best shop setup

 

That’s how I was back in college. I would go to another apartment complex’s parking lot and work on my car there. Haha

 

You should just have a gasket seal between the valve cover and the casting of the cylinder head and the valve cover.

( disregard the arrows as these images were taken from other posts. )

 

O.P. its not a hard job to do it yourself,the middle o ring is leaking on yours.

 

Thanks everyone. My truck is actually going in for its 90k service tomorrow. The dealership wanted $202.20 to replace the plugs which is why I did it myself today for $34. I guess I'll quiz them about the oil and gasket and see how to handle it from there. The only gaskets I've ever replaced were on my old pos Skidoo

 

If they charge 202 for spark plugs, imagine what they want to replace the valve cover gasket!

 

$$202.20 for spark plugs