Bad Gasket?????????

[K9Exploder]

My '92 Explorer's valve covers are covered with goo: looks like a mixture of oil and dirt. At any rate I suspect a leak because when I stop, I can smell burnt oil and I have seen smoke come from the driver's side header, like oil is leaking from the valve cover and dripping on the header....

Is this common to have to replace the valve cover gaskets??? OR could it be another reason totally?? My Explorer has 126k on the motor. It runs fine otherwise...

OK now if it IS the valve cover gasket, how involved of an operation is it...sthing a mechanically inclined novice could/should attempt???

 

[Billy177]

i would spray the engine with some degreaser to clean it up than you will be able to pinpoint the leak the gaskets shouldent be hard to replace if need be

 

[audiodude332001]

I just replaced my valve covers and gaskets on thursday. Its the 3rd explorer that iv done it on, but it should be an easy job for someone that has never done it before. Just remove the upper intake, and the distributor, and I also removed the AC pump and the alternator which wasnt really required but makes it much easier to get to the valve cover bolts. The entire project took me 1.5 hours. OOO, and don't buy the crappy cork gaskets, get the rubbery ones.