Saudade

Been having some oil seepage around the valve covers. In an earlier thread I wrote about my PCV valve adventure that I thought may contribute to the issue. It's only been less than 100 miles since I replaced the PCV valve and grommet and they are bone dry. Seems like the leak is from the front camshaft cover as the area still had fresh oil in the area. I didn't take "before" pics but here's an "after" pic when I cleaned the area as best as I could. The whole area had fresh oil and the typical grunge. I have not yet attempted any repair. It's tough to get in the crevices with the EGR in the way but you can see the gunk accumulated in the camshaft cover.

So it looks easy enough. Pull the EGR, pop out the cover, replace the o ring and Bob's your uncle. I hope I don't have to remove the water passage.

Anybody dealt with this before?

thoiboi

EGR is super easy to remove, just the two 12 mm bolts and off it goes.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Torque those bolts to 16 lbf-ft. Be sure to lube the new o-ring before install of camshaft thrust cover.

TheMightyQuinn

i just went through this a few months back. check the back one while you're at it. then get new gaskets and change them. fortunately this is a pretty easy fix. some oil leaks can be hard to fix.

whitetiger5

ain't that the truth! 3 words: rear main seal.

whitetiger5

The hardest part would be getting the cam thrust covers off. Unfortunately this is an example of one of the seals that begins to harden and leak with time.
I worked in a manufacturing shop once and they scheduled in preventative maintenance similar to this on a lot of machines that they used; the same could be applied here if you're the type of person who likes to keep things clean under the hood.
I redid the above seal when I replaced my valve cover seals; replacing spark plug seals, cleaning the intake and manifold EGR ports along the way.
Other areas are obvi the front of the engine when timing belt is done. and back if you ever need to replace the transmission.

ProfessorFunk

That's 16 lbf-ft for the camshaft thrust covers was well as the EGR fasteners. I did this very job a few days ago, it was easier than I expected.