Thoughts: Reuse valve cover gasket

Here is the scenario.

2003 V6, truck is new to me. 170,000 miles, mostly well kept, but I knew I had a leak somewhere and I started with valve cover gaskets.

I replaced the valve cover gaskets last weekend with genuine Toyota OEM. A couple of days later I noticed leaking and saw a crack on the forward edge of the left cylinder bank (driver's side) valve cover. The gasket replacement is less than 1 week old. I may have driven 100 miles since replacement.

I have replacement valve covers coming to me.

I believe that I'll be ok reusing the existing (1 week old gaskets). But a part of me says that replacing them again is much cheaper that having to tear it down a third time because I'm wrong.

Opinions from you fine folks.

 

Did you use toyota FIPG at the corners of the cam humps where it calls for it? Also did you reseal your half moon plugs in the back?

As long as you didn't get fipg on the gasket (you should have though) there's no harm in reusing it, just clean your mating surfaces thoroughly, maybe wipe the gasket down and apply FIPG where the FSM calls for it. Make sure you tighten the little 10mm head M6 screws down in the right order.

 

Toyota is pretty picky about non-reusable parts (gaskets, o-rings, seals, lock nuts), but they don't usually list the valve cover gasket as non-reusable, so you should be fine as long as you clean the area that gets sealant real good with a solvent that removes oil first.

 

drivers side most definitly use new... too much to take back off the replace it, passenger side, I would roll the dice.

 

Only the OP can make the call !!

Myself new gaskets compared to the time to do it yet again .

Then it also comes down to if this is your only vehicle and your 1000 miles from home .

 

Kinda strange that a brand new cover gasket would crack. Hasn't happen to me yet.

 

The gasket didn't crack. The aluminum valve cover cracked. Was cracked prior to my replacing the gasket but it was a hairline crack that I didn't catch until after I had replaced everything and drove around for a while.

 

Fixed. I allow myself 1 mistake a month and you caught it on the 2nd day of the month. I have 29 more days to go before I can make another mistake. Gonna be a long month.

 

How much is a valve cover gasket vs maybe having to do it again?

 

should be fine

 

Yes, this is really the question. Roughly $20. I've made my decision but I'm still interested in hearing opinions.

It gets a little more expensive depending on what I'm going to do. I found someone with both valve covers at a decent price so I bought them both. After I inspect them I am thinking about polishing the new ones or painting them. On my Miata, when I was in my 30s, I polished the valve cover to a mirror finish and put a engine turned finish down the center of the valley. It looked awesome and I wish I had pulled that valve cover off to save it. I also wish I had pictures of it.

The valve covers on the 3.4 are mostly hidden and the casting is pretty rough so a quality polish will be very difficult to do. Painting might be cool but again the covers are mostly hidden. Here is an example.



@Rons01TRD did this one, I think.

As I said I've made my decision but I could be swayed if y'all would like to continue to try.

 

Yes, I painted those with high Temp paint. I wanted more of a Red color that was on the cap.

 

Wow! That looks really good with the red! My engine bay is always super dirty!

My valve cover gaskets have been seeping forever. My truck has 216,000 miles on it. I'm planning on putting new valve cover gaskets and checking the valve clearances this winter. Maybe I'll take a little extra time and throw some nice paint in their.

 

Since the valve covers are cast I didn't think polishing would give them the consistent shine I would want but painting was easier and a lot less labor intensive.

 

On sport bikes where clearances must be checked with regularity and valve cover gaskets run 200 bux, (complete) they get reused quite a bit.

On a bike that the cover points to the front tire this leads to some serious arguing about what's acceptable. A week old? I'd reuse it. Hell a year old, I might.

 

They look fabulous. How are they holding up? How long ago did you paint them? Any special prep work? I agree with you on polishing. I could get them to shine but that isn't the look I would want to go for. If I'm going to polish I expect a mirror finish and if that is even possible with these covers then I'd be looking at many 10s of hours.

What brand of paint? Just a rattle can?

 

I sold my Tacoma a few years ago but the paint was holding up very well. I think it was VHT high temp paint (rattle can). Clean and prep was the main factor, the valve covers have passages and baffles and to get tape to stick and get everything oil free was difficult. I think it took me longer to prep and paint than it did to just change the valve covers. I had the truck two years after painting the intake and valve covers and it was holding up very well.

 

I plan on painting the valve covers on my 4Runners 4.0 V6 when it come time to change the valve cover gaskets. Most likely a metallic charcoal or silver color.

 

I decided to replace the gaskets but wait, to order, until I pulled everything off just in case I needed to order some thing else. But when I had everything pulled off the gaskets are perfect and I decided to reuse them. I also decided to do a little painting too.