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I have a 98 impreza with a 2.5L engine that i turbo'd and added nitrous to. It seems that the last 10-15k miles of driving and racing, that im getting oil seepage from the valve covers. NOT where the heads connect to the block. but the valve covers. It does not leak enough that it even creates a drop on the ground. (just a little mess around the heads.) My tech said that with my set up, there's alot of pressure and its going to seep from somewhere. is there a way to correct this? open to suggestions/previous experiences.
Location: Japan, where the term "JDM" doesn't exist
Drives : '94 WRX, '97 Forester S/Tb, '95 WRX-RA
Posts: 270
The leak may not be from the valve cover gasket, which spans the entire radius of the cover. It could just be one of the valve cover bolt seals, which is far easier to swap out. The valve cover gasket kit for one side runs about $25 and you get the cover gasket, two small gaskets for the parts that are around the spark plugs, and six bolt seals. I experienced this leak on all 3 WRXs that I have owned, and my friend's cars do it too. This last time, it was enough to form a drop every 3-5 minutes while driving. The drop would fall right on top of the uppipe and make a lot of smoke which would pour out from under the hood and make the car appear that it was on fire. It was more embarassing than it was serious. I bought the kit from SOJ, and went about replacing the gaskets. The job takes about an hour. After I was finished, I noticed that the old seal was in pretty good condition, but one of the bolt seals had a huge chunk missing out of it, and the caked oil on valve cover was concentrated around where this bolt was.
Location: Japan, where the term "JDM" doesn't exist
Drives : '94 WRX, '97 Forester S/Tb, '95 WRX-RA
Posts: 270
Then it is most likely the valve cover gasket that is leaking. You could try tightening down the bolts first and see if that helps. They arent torqued very high when they are installed. My Subaru mechanic recommended that I use a 1/4 in ratchet to install mine and use no more force than I could put on that tiny ratchet with my thumb.
I bet your nitrous is blowing by on that oldER motor and causing pressure in the heads. That will cause your valve cover to leak. You need to replace your valve cover gasgets and all the valve cover bolt washer-gasgets and properly route your crank and valve cover ventilation system.
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