Hi All, I'm getting some oil dripping on my exhaust manifold and I think I need new valve cover gaskets. I'm hoping to get confirmations from the group that's what I'm dealing with (see pictures attached).

I've been doing some high mileage maintenance on the car lately and getting to know it better (every fluid flushed, pcv valve, new air intake hose, oil filter housing gasket, etc.). I've owned this car since January 2009 and it has 241,000 miles now.

I'm at that point of deciding if I want to invest money to have some repairs done and keep it another 100k miles. Since it drives great, I think I will.

If I get new valve cover gaskets and motor mounts, what are some other common things to have done at the same time? I had the timing belt replaced at 155k 9 years or so ago.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

 

Here are a few more pics

 

That old girl has been leaking for a while.
Along with valve cover gaskets, it may be prudent to check / replace the #13 camshaft thrust cover o-rings



Furthermore, if your intention is to '...keep it another 100K miles' a new Aisin timing belt kit may be in order to increase that probability?


With all that said, how does it look underneath on the pulley side, oil leak wise, where the oil pump & spool valve assembly live??

 

I just placed an order online to get the valve cover gasket set. I went with the OEM parts. I also ordered the #13 camshaft thrust cover o-ring as you suggested. I figured why not replace the ATF filter as well. This should be a fun weekend project for me. I debated back and forth whether I should have the shop do it or me. I think I'll be more satisfied knowing all new gaskets are used if I do it on my own.

Underneath on the pulley side I think I'm OK. I did replace the gasket on the oil filter housing a few weeks ago and stopped on leak there. I'm hoping after replacing the valve cover my leak problem will be solved.

 

@pk552502 You definitely need to do the timing belt soon - 9 years and 90,000 miles since your last one !

 

I agree it's on my list of items to complete. My first one did last 155k miles so I figured I had at least a few months. Also on my list is new wheel bearings. The current ones seem fine but they are original to the car so after over 240k miles, I'm probably due to replace them to avoid any urgent issues. I think I could do the wheel bearings myself during my time off in April.

 

Have you removed the ignition coils yet? With that age and mileage, you may need to replace the valve covers.

I need to get back to work on resealing my engine. Two new valve covers are on my list of parts to buy.

 

yes I removed the ignition coils and that part of the valve cover is corroded a bit which from youtube it looks like it's fairly common. I think the washer will still work and I don't need a new valve cover. The bigger problem I'm having is that one of the valve cover bolts broke and was stuck in the valve body. Luckily I was able to extract it but now I need a replacement bolt. Looks like my car will be out of commission for a few days until I get the new bolt. I was just hand tightening it and I don't think I over-torqued it too much, but it broke.

 

Good news, I crafted a stud to use in place of the broken valve cover bolt so my car is back on the road. I'll keep an eye on it, but it looks like it should hold just fine especially in that higher part of the valve cover.

 

Overall, the valves appear to be in good condition for a high mileage vehicle and I didn't see any sludge problems.

 

The intake manifold and cover do have some carbon buildup. I may think about cleaning those up in a future project.

 

Overall, I'm glad I got the gaskets replaced. I could tell it needed it and there was a large chunk of the old gasket stuck on the valve body. The best tool I found to remove the old gasket was a wood chisel after I let it soak in oil for a bit. A razor blade was easily scratching the surface. After a test drive, the burning oil smell is largely gone and hopefully will be completely gone after I clean the excess oil off the exhaust. Funny enough, two codes that were appearing non-stop for the past few years are now gone (exhaust system and transmission system). I did unplug the battery so that may be why but I'm hopeful by unplugging a bunch of stuff and then plugging it back in may have resolved those codes.

The one downside is that I think the engine degreaser I used on the valve covers may have corroded them a little bit, but they were already bubbly and corroded in the before pictures above so maybe it wasn't the cleaner.

 

Hey man I have the same issue and I’m a relatively new car owner could you tell me what parts you orders I found some valve cover gasket sets on rock auto but would really like to explore some options

 

Hi, for the valve cover gaskets, I bought OEM sets from acurapartswarehouse.com. The part # is Acura 12030-RJA-010 Head Cover Gasket Set. It includes the bolt grommets, ignition coil seals and valve cover gasket. You need to order two of them if you go the OEM route. Double check that part fits the 2005 acura RL. I would also get one spare #16 bolt from the diagram image below just in case- I ended up needing it and didn't have it.

Also as suggested above, might as well replace the #13 camshaft thrust cover o-ring. You can do that a different day since it's unrelated to the valve cover gasket but might as well buy the part now.

There were two youtube videos I watched that I found to be helpful: 1) Acura RL Valve Cover Gaskets Replacement (LONG DETAILED VIDEO) and 2) rl valve cover gasket replacement

You can also get the Felpro branded valve cover gasket kit from amazon if you want to go the cheaper route.

 

I remembered a couple other things. When I removed the throttle body, the gasket ripped and I had to get a new throttle body gasket from autozone. It's something they have in stock. Also, you may want to replace the inlet manifold gasket (17105-RCA-A01) or the inlet manifold cover gasket (17146-R70-A01). I didn't replace the manifold gaskets when I did mine, but I since purchased them and plan to clean the manifold in the future and I'll replace them then.

Also, you may need to replace the 17228-RJA-A01 Air Flow Tube. Mine was cracked and I replaced it with an autozone one. I only use autozone if I need something right away. If I have time to plan I typically use rockauto or acurapartswarehouse.

There's other simple maintenance items you can knock out too- but focus on the valve cover gaskets if they're leaking and then worry about the other stuff. I was really glad to get mine done.

 

Thank you man I’ll definitely look into all that. You’ve saved me quite the headache of searching for the issue so I hope this truly works for me too!

 

Maybe it's the lighting, but I'm confused as to why everything appears to be a burnt red color. Mine looked much different (see attachment)

I had a leak below the intake manifold that I discovered while doing my valve cover gaskets and plug seals (image attached).

Oil pan gasket is known to leak on the 4th gen TL, as it the main rear seal. I would recommend checking those areas as well.

How much oil are you burning per 1000 miles?

 

It's not the lighting- the brownish copper color is what it looks like in person. I want to say the color is similar to videos I saw on youtube about valve cover gasket replacement and valve timing adjustments. I'll have to see if I can find other similar images. Is yours an acura TL and how many miles?

I honestly don't think my car is abnormally burning oil. I think I was losing oil from several leaks in different areas which have now been resolved. I'll have to measure if I'm losing any more oil now but it's definitely not noticeable as before I had the leaks fixed..

 

Mine is a 2011 and had about 135k when that photo was taken.

if your engine is a 3.7L and doesn't burn oil, you must have the only one that doesn't.

 

@pk552502 has a 2005 RL so it will be the 3.5L. @mossman77 I think we are seeing a difference between the 3.5L and the 3.7L here...

 

My fault. I swear I was in the 4th gen TL forum. Ignore everything I said 😄