How to seal oil fill tube to valve cover

[coolfeet]

When I pulled the dog house to inspect the inside of the engine compartment, I noticed the oil fill tube resting on the valve cover. It looks like it's a twist lock stem into the valve cover. Valve cover opening looks damaged. The van is old with lots of miles.

I called a Ford master tech and he said he would have to loosen a motor mount and partially lower the engine to remove the valve cover.

Anyone know if there is a high temperature silicon that will seal the tube? I can get it to go part way into the valve cover.

[JoeH]

Originally Posted by coolfeet

When I pulled the dog house to inspect the inside of the engine compartment, I noticed the oil fill tube resting on the valve cover. It looks like it's a twist lock stem into the valve cover. Valve cover opening looks damaged. The van is old with lots of miles.

I called a Ford master tech and he said he would have to loosen a motor mount and partially lower the engine to remove the valve cover.

Anyone know if there is a high temperature silicon that will seal the tube? I can get it to go part way into the valve cover.

I just did this to mine but bought the new elbow that the oil fill tube inserts into. When I did my engine swap the mechanic muppet wrenched the fitting and munched the tabs that the elbow twists into. On a positive note if you need a new valve cover the passenger side is half the price of the driver side. That's for a 6.0 anyway.

Not sure about the sealant as I was able to avoid going that route but any high temp gasket sealer should work.

[coolfeet]

Originally Posted by JoeH

I just did this to mine but bought the new elbow that the oil fill tube inserts into. When I did my engine swap the mechanic muppet wrenched the fitting and munched the tabs that the elbow twists into. On a positive note if you need a new valve cover the passenger side is half the price of the driver side. That's for a 6.0 anyway.

Not sure about the sealant as I was able to avoid going that route but any high temp gasket sealer should work.

Looks like my tabs are munched too! Did you replace the gasket before the engine was swapped out?

Here are the photos of the valve cover I pulled off eBay.

[JoeH]

My mechanic was able to bend the fins back and make it work with a new elbow and re-using the fill tube. I'm not exactly sure when or how it got muppet-wrenched as I'm the 3rd owner.

[pjpvi]

I didn't realize this was a common happening. I had the same thing that I noticed when working on up / down turbo pipes last year. Can't remember if I used a small screwdriver or wrench to bend the tabs back without removing the cover. I taped or zip-tied string onto the tool in case I dropped it inside. I assume mine was damaged during one of the two times the engine had been removed for bedplate leaks.

No good advise to offer, other than you are not alone.

[JoeH]

I think you are correct in order to swap out the valve cover you have to do the engine mount dealio. If so, then you might consider replacing the injectors for the amount of labor involved. You'll be right there and you can do the updated standpipe and dummy plugs as well.

[ShuttlePilot]

Just in case anyone was going to swap out the valve cover in the driveway you need to remove the driver side engine mount to remove the passenger valve cover. I just wanted to spread the word because it would have taken me a while to figure that out on my own. Or maybe I was the only one who didn't know that. I saw this video of DieselTechRon which saved me A Lot of time when I did my standpipes and dummy plugs. Ron is swapping an injector in a van without removing the engine so if you were just doing a valve cover you might not need to remove quite as much. It's still a time consuming job. Sorry about embedding the video, I thought the forum frowned on that, but I can't seem to figure out how to just post the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdoXP5PAqL4

- Eric