ill soon be getting into a 08 base HR and all it needs is a passenger side valve cover gasket. my buddy told me it is a stupid hard job, I have to take apart the whole front of the engine for it. is this true? thanks in advance!

 

Welcome, and you need to provide additional information to get any kind of educated response. First, how many miles are on this '08 that you plan to buy? How do you know it needs a new PS valve cover gasket? Are there any leaks from the spark plug gaskets imbedded in the valve cover itself? Have you checked the DIY forum on this topic?

 

 

please take it somewhere and get a pre purchase inspection done........money well spent.

Valve cover is not crazy hard......not crazy easy either.

 

I work at a dealership so ill bring it up here and get it looked at it, main concern is just the job. I know how to work on cars but ive never worked on a Nissan nor a vq motor. I just wanna know the basics to it to see if its a all day job so I can bring it up to my job on my day off and do it.

 

About half a day, I would say. Beware, valve covers cost about $400 a set! Z1 Motorsports has a good price on them.

Good luck!

 

gotcha gotch. from what my friend told me, I have to take off pulleys and stuff like that but to me that doesn't really make sense. wouldn't I just have to take off the Intake mani and move around the harness and such to access the valve covers?

 

no pulleys......just taking off the plenum......then coils packs......and short wiring harnesses, be sure to pay attention.....a VERY common mistake is connection the driver's side logically, which is wrong. ALso need a small cross of RTV on one corner of each side (I forget)

You should be able to find service manual online free somewhere for more specifics.

 

okay cool, doesn't seem too bad. im sure I can knock it out on my day off or when I get free time, shop has been dead for past few days. I appreciate the help!

 

I literally just did mine last weekend.

It's 20 bolts and maybe 3 hours of weekend work. That said, be careful. Nissan used **** bolts. I snapped the heads off a couple before even getting to the reccomended tq specs from Nissan on both my valve cover and timing chain cover. These almost felt like one time use bolts TBH, which is a little pathetic.

 

Really? The rocker cover bolts use hardly any torque (step1: 18 in-lbs, step2: 73 in-lbs). I can't think of any bolt that snaps at 73 in-lbs (only 6 ft-lbs). Were they stretched when you removed them? The FSM shows them as reusable.

 

Yea I've got 3 snapped heads at 4-5 ft lbs which is equal to 60-65 inch lb.

90% sure I have closer to 5-6 but I stopped torquing a few early because I felt them starting to give. These 3 snapped because I said the same thing. No way these are snapping at 65 inlb

 

Yeah, it's simple. I wouldn't even stress about it. Just look at what you have to disassemble and enjoy yourself.

 

I saw recently that RND is making replacement seals for our VC's. Instead of buying a whole new valve cover, you can buy the spark plug gaskets and replace. Has anyone used these yet?

RND Nissan VC kit

 

Or if you want to be REALLY lazy and cheap just use RTV.

My spare motor I picked up went that rout. Good luck cleaning it off after if you decide to use a real gasket again tho lol

 

Make sure you change the spark plugs while you are at it. You will see what I mean when you get to the back 2 plugs

 

That would be awesome. But isn't the problem with that, the fact that we have those baffles within the valve cover that are held in there by a 'special' type of glue that when pried out becomes a major PITA to keep back in place once we replace those seals..? I thought that was the main problem with that DIY, and that people were having better luck just either replacing the whole valve cover(which is still ridiculous in itself) or putting RTV sealer around the already worn out tube seals, which is ehh, not really good to do either.

 

In that kit, they provide you with new Spark Plug O-Rings and require you to slightly bore out the Plug Holes for them to fit properly. I need to eventually do mine, so I was wondering if anyone had tried em already.

 

I haven't done that, but I've heard about it.. I'm curious how snug those replacement tube seals will fit within the rocker cover once the baffle has been bored out. It was my understanding that the baffle assisted the tube seals with staying in place, and that boring out the baffle may cause the seals to drop slightly...?