Will driving with a oil leak in the valve cover gasket hurt the engine? If so, how can this be prevented?
Is it an oil leak or an oil seep? Does oil run down the side of the engine leaving a clean trail as oil drips on the ground? Or does it just form a nasty, mucky oil-dirt combination that slowly builds?If it's actually a leak, get it fixed now. You can lose sufficient oil to starve the engine and cause premature wear or even failure. On top of that, you have an oil slick being left wherever you go, oil is probably dripping on the exhaust causing nasty fumes (not to mention a potential fire hazard) and you are having to spend money on oil that is just going to hit the ground. Not to mention it's not exactly good for those plants by your driveway to have oil washing into them.If it's a seep, don't ignore it. Get it fixed. If you have to wait a week or 2 for financial reasons, that's understandable, but don't push it out too far as it can develop into a leak. In addition, the dirt, cottonwood fluff, dandelion seeds, etc that can get stuck in the slime will do a few detrimental things. For one, it insulates your engine raising operating temperature a bit. Most cars engine oil relies on the side of the block and the oil pan to radiate heat away. Remember, oil functions as a lubricant, cleaner, and coolant! If the block and pan are caked over in grime, it is harder for the oil to transfer it's heat through the pan and into the air. This grime can also pose a serious fire hazard. Not fun.
Is is safe to drive with leaking calipers?
No, it is not safe
How to know if its Valve Stem Oil Seals or Piston Rings?
1. Your car does not have valve sem seals. Even if seals were installed it would not fix the real problem. Blue smoke out the back on deceleration and when you first start the car means the valve guide clearance is loose. The clearance between the valve stems and the valve guide is usually .001 -.0015 on the intake valves and .0015 -.0017 on the exhaust valves. If the car does not use an unusual amount of oil or foul spark plugs don't bother with the expensive valve guide replacement repair.If you use more than a quart of oil per 1000 miles and the car is in otherwise good shape get it fixed by an independant mechanic. It'll take some outside machine work to drill oversize all the valve guides and new ones pressed in place. This job also requires re-grinding the valves and seats for a perfect valve seal. Piston ring problems usually cause blue smoke 100% of the time while driving the car. A dry compression test will tell if the rings are bad. The second test involves a shot of motor oil in a the spark plug hole being tested. If the compression goes up there is a valve problem. If it stays down it's a ring problem.
My valve covers are leaking, can this damage my car?
It can. It will make a mess of the engine compartment. If you aren’t allergic to hand tools you can try simply tightening them up. Use a short handle quarter inch drive ratchet as valve covers are often delicate, some are plastic. If that doesn’t do it on most cars it is not an expensive repair. If your car needs other work I wouldn’t put this as the top priority repair.
Does my car have bad piston rings or bad valve seals?
It simple to test.If you accelerate and blue smoke continues until RPM is high all the time these are rings. If you see smoke just few seconds after acceleration these are valve seals. The more idling time the more blue cloud with acceleration also indicates the valve seals are bad. But they are still allow only very small amount of oil to leak into manifold. And it's accumulating there until you push pedal and all that oil burns quickly and then exhaust is clean.The most accurate way to test rings to give some load to engine. Let someone follow you until you accelerate or going on low RPM and higher gear. If rings are bad exhaust would be significantly visible.Thanks
What can I add to my car's oil for now to ease valve seal leak?
You'll have to weigh the consequences of adding Lucas oil stabilizer. Plus side: May slow down oil leaks. May raise cylinder compression. May slow-down or reduce oil leakage down worn valve guides. Minus side: Thick, high viscosity engine oil additives reduce the ability of the oil pump to force a maximum volume of lubrication to frictional surfaces during engine start-up. *80% of ALL engine wear occurs during cold starts. High viscosity engine oil additives reduce fuel economy torque and horsepower. Lucas engine oil stabilizer contains no detergents to clean the engine. If someone sees smoke from your exhaust when you slide your foot completely off the accelerator while driving 60 mph., you have worn valve seals and worn valve guides. Replacing valve seals does not fix the real problem which is too much clearance between the valve stems and valve guides. Your selection of motor oil caused this problem.
Can driving a car out of time cause a burnt valve?
IMy timing belt broke on my 1992 honda accord. I had a guy fix it. When I picked it up, he said the reason it was running rough is because I needed spark plug wires and if I got some he would put them on for free. I got some a couple weeks later. It did not help. I also found oil down in all 4 spark plugs(i think he knew I would find this and is why he wanted to put them on for me). He supposedly replaced the valve cover gasket(charged me for one). I then decided to just go ahead and get a guy to replace the valve cover gasket and plugs. The plugs also did not help and the mechanic who put them in said the timing was off and that was why it was running so bad. I had the guy who put on the timing belt come and recheck it. He took about hour to get it back to me to tell me it had a burnt valve. Could driving the car a month and a half out of time caused a burnt valve?
Would you fix the oil leak on your car if it costs $300?
I am very economically minded when it comes to cars. I nearly always buy low mileage to medium mileage used cars and drive them to around 250,000 miles or so. These cars are significantly less expensive to buy than new cars, but they still require me to finance.I have a rule of thumb. If the average maintenance costs per month (over 4 to 6 months) cost more than an average car payment, I get a new car.Usually I keep a car for 8 to 10 years and go 4 to 5 years without a car payment, which allows me to save up a down payment for the next one.There is no point spending $600/month on repairs. You could be driving a luxury car for that car payment.If the dripping oil is the only issue you are having, it may be worth fixing.If you are constantly having repairs of $200 to $300 every 4 to 8 weeks, it's probably not worth fixing. At least for me.
How do I fix the engine oil leakage to spark plugs?
There are three possible causes:1) rings. If the oil control rings are shot, or the cylinder bore is excessive, you'll get oil from the pan up past the piston into the combustion chamber, oiling the plugs. Diagnosis: leak-down test. If you pressurize the cylinder, and can hear air hissing into the crankcase, it's rings.Repair: complete engine rebuild, which these days just about always means "replacement".2) valve guides. If the seals on the valve guides have failed, or the valve guides have exceeded wear limit, or the valve stems have exceeded wear limit, oil may run down the valves into the combustion chamber, oiling the plugs.Diagnosis: leak-down test. If you pressurize the cylinder, and hear air hissing into the valve cover, it's valves and/or guides.Repair: valve job. Much less expensive than rebuild. But be cautious - you could be putting a lot of money into an engine with other issues. You need to establish the baseline health and remaining life of the rest of the engine before doing this (unless you do it yourself, in which case the out-of-pocket costs are low enough that it's no big deal, just annoying, if the engine fails a couple of months later)3) crack in engine. If there's a crack, causing oil to bypass the oil control measures at the piston sidewall and valves, oil will leak into the combustion chamber, oiling the plugs.Diagnosis: leak down test. No air leaking, anywhere, and you're still getting oiled plugs.Repair: replace engine. Me, personally, I'd strip it myself, just to see where it failed, but you're going to need a new block, or head, or whatever failed.
To change the valve cover gasket on an automobile do you have to drain the oil?
No, you don't. Would be advisable to change the oil after your donw with the job, to get rid of the debris that may have fallen inside the engine itself.