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2012 Black SX Prem. & Tech.
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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Has anyone replaced the gasket at the top of the engine, between what looks like a valve cover and the engine?

The service manual refers to this cover as a cylinder head cover. I'm getting a slight oil leak and wondering if it's a job that can be done at home on a weekend. Seems like a lot of parts would need to come off to free up the cover, unless there is a trick to doing the gasket replacement?
 

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Never did it on the '11, but would assume the only difference from the '08, would be the HP fuel pump that needs to be removed.
Remove fuel pump fuse/replay and run car until it dies.

Didn't watch the entire video so maybe I missed it, but one item I didn't see removed was the spark plugs, but they need to be removed also.
 

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I'm wondering that as well. The dealer recommended replacement of some other gasket at the same time. Had to do with the fuel system, if I remember correctly. On my base model 2011, it doesn't look like too many things need to be disconnected.
 

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Discussion Starter · #5 · (Edited)
Thanks Turbonut, that video is very helpful. That engine had the same exact kind of oil leak I do, where it puts a slight coating of oil onto the heat shield in back of the engine.

As for gaskets/seals you need: The video shows there are some tube seals on the underside of the valve cover (looks like for the spark plug holes), along with the gasket for the valve cover itself, that need to be replaced. He links in the description to a Genuine Hyundai 22441-2G670 Rocker Cover Gasket for $25, which seems to have the valve cover gasket and the tube seals together.

Besides those, and the gasket for the high pressure fuel pump ($25), you also need to put some dabs of "black silicone" (shown as a tube of Permatex The Right Stuff One Minute Gasket) that you apply onto the underlying seal where the timing chain cover meets the block. He does not include a link to the Permatex The Right Stuff black. You can find this at a local auto parts store.

He mentioned the valve cover gasket would fall out when you flip over the valve cover during install. So he uses a 3M product, putting a bead in the channel of the valve cover, to then sort of "glue" the valve cover gasket into the channel so it stays put. I'm going to see if my replacement gasket stays in place by friction before doing this step.

So looks like the parts would be about $60, plus your labor of like 1 hour unless you are fast like he was.

My concern is there is a required tightening order/procedure for the valve cover bolts, and specific torque values that are very low. See my additional post below for the order and torque values. The video uses a much higher torque (1/4 turn past finger tight), and I'm not sure if that will result in leaking very soon. Probably best to use the recommended torque values and tightening order per below.

Any guess what the shop would charge for this procedure, just fixing an oil leak by replacing the gaskets?
 

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If not leaking too badly, let it go until you need plugs and as you heed to remove the spark plugs, do them at the same time Get the parts from Rockauto, that's where I purchased mine $15 vc gaskets and tube seals, $5 for the hp fuel pump gasket. Got a code for 5% discount, but need to look it up. Maybe an hour to hour and half, so depends on what the shop charges p/hour.
Believe the gasket sets in a groove around the vc, so just tighten it in a cross pattern till snug. It's not like the old cork or rubber flat gaskets that can be squeezed out when tightening down. If no one had tried to tighten it before, then no need to see if vc is flat in the bolt hole areas, but occasionally some monster will try and stop the seepage and tighten it down to 200 lb/ft.
 

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Discussion Starter · #7 · (Edited)
Here are the torque specs and tightening order for the valve cover, and the torque specs for the high pressure fuel pump. Also you should put oil on the o-ring at the base of the high pressure fuel pump.

There is a two-pass spiral procedure where you tighten all bolts in the first pass to 4 ft-lbs at first, then in the second pass you tighten them all to 7 ft-lbs.

Based on the video, the guy seems to overtighten quite a bit (eyeballing him seems more like 40 ft lbs!?), and he does a single pass, which is not what the service manual recommends.

249885

249886

249887
 

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Discussion Starter · #8 ·
After doing the valve cover replacement, I have some more insights that aren't mentioned in the video above:

1. No need for the "glue" - the gaskets fit very snugly into their valve cover grooves, and friction holds them there. So you just push in the new gaskets and they stay put nicely, even during install when you are maneuvering the valve cover around to get it into place.

2. Remove the horn - it gets in the way, and removing it made installation easier because it gives you room to swing the valve cover side to side.

3. Loosen the bracket at the front - this is the bracket that provides a metal loop for lifting the engine, and it gets in the way. The bolt won't come all the way out, but if you loosen it all the way, the bracket wobbles back and forth. This is helpful for two reasons: you can move the bracket to easily reach the valve cover bolt, and you can move the bracket back and forth during the valve cover removal and installation.

4. The loosened bracket helps with valve cover installation - this part is not intuitive but worked well for me.

To install the valve cover, you rotate/angle the cover and insert the far end under the fuel line, but because you've gone in at an angle, the part of the cover near you will actually be offset to the side so much that the valve cover will be covering the loosened bracket inside the cover. This is totally wrong, but at this angle, the far end of the cover will very easily go under the metal fuel line so you don't really have to bend the metal fuel line. The valve cover bracket seems designed like this, with a divot to fit under things. Anyway, once you are "in/under" you can scoot the cover in further so the far end will clear the mounting points for the fuel pump, and will drop down and be in place. But, the near end still needs to be maneuvered. So, you lift up the near end, to clear that bracket you previously covered. You can then move the bracket to outside the cover. Now the cover is ready to drop down in place.

That's why it's important to loosen that bracket, because it angles back and forth during cover installation to get out of the way of the valve cover as you pivot it side to side. Without that, you'd really need to bend the fuel line. According to the manual the metal fuel line should be replaced and not re-used. But I'm re-using my old one so I tried to baby that line as much as possible.

Also I suggest "practicing" the installation maneuver before you've added the gasket. After three practice tries, the procedure was easy to do without hitting the bottom of the valve cover against anything. So when I finally installed the cover, everything went smoothly. This is important because you will have two little dabs of liquid gasket, so you want to be careful when finally placing the cover.

5. When disconnecting the metal fuel line, it's better to loosen the high pressure fuel pump first, so you can lift up the pump with the line, and then easily disengage the metal fuel line from the pump. Otherwise you'd have to bend the metal line unnecessarily out and away from the fixed pump, to let the line's nipple clear the port orifice on the fuel pump. Keeping the line in the pump also avoids damage to the nipple on the fuel line, because the line is engaged/protected when you are moving the pump/line together. Same when reconnecting but in reverse - it's best to connect the metal fuel line to the high pressure fuel pump, then lower the pump/line down into place together.

Here's how clean the inside was. The old gasket came off in one piece intact without sticking to the engine or valve cover. This is with about 110,000 miles. So it was really easy to just pull out the old gasket and use cleaner to wipe down the mating surfaces. I use Walmart synthetic oil, change at 5000 miles. You can see how the heat shield at the back of the engine was stained with burnt oil - my valve cover leak was at the back near the high pressure fuel pump. But after reinstalling the valve cover (to protect the engine from dirt), I took off the heat shield and scrubbed it down to get it clean. The engine and gasket looked nice and clean:

250022


This shows a little detail on the gasket (I got the OEM gasket, linked in the video above), where there is a textured section to engage with the liquid gasket you put down as part of the installation:

250023


I didn't take a video because I was using both hands, but I tried to draw arrows to give you an idea of how you insert at an angle (which will cover the loosened bracket, circled), by coming in at that angle and going up over the high pressure fuel pump mounting point, but under the metal fuel line. The valve cover has a circular divot that lets it fit between these, when you go in at the angle shown. But that angle will cause the near end of the cover to enclose/cover the loosened bracket, which is OK. Once you clear the far end, you can then rotate the cover, and the far end will drop almost into place. Then, you can lift up the near end to uncover the loose bracket, and rotate the near end so it's ready to drop into place. You can do all this without letting the valve cover touch the mating surface.

250024


Removing the horn helps with this maneuvering, it's just a single bolt and well worth the slight effort to remove the horn.
 

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Thanks for this post. I have doing the same thing, but cannot remove the valve cover. It feels like it is seized and I have removed all the screws. I have worked at prying it up and while i definitely see some clearance, it is no open up all the way. Any recommendations on how to remove it?
 
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