Inertia Sport Home

Our 1990 LX Coupe has always had one annoying little oil leak. We finally tore into it and see what the problem was. Unfortunately our “fix” left us with a bigger problem. Thanks for the fine workmanship Henry.Ya gotta love eBay! You can find anything - often for a bargain. Well, when we reassembled the motor after the stroker build - we needed some valve covers that would clear our roller rockers - yet still fit under the Holley Systemax intake. Our selection was a pair of aluminum Ford Racing valve covers - with the baffle removed. Unfortunately, the covers we received from our eBay purchase were not in perfect condition.

Upon receiving the used/like-new (yeah sure) covers - we noticed a slight bend to the filler neck. It seemed they had been abused by the previous owner - or the man in the brown van that delivered the goods. We were able to tweak the filler neck back into shape and didn’t think more of it. Until we noticed the leak. No matter what type of cap we used, we were getting a steady amount of oil leaking around the filler neck. The amount was tiny at first. It would slowly pool up in the aluminum fins of the cover after our third or fourth lap of a track session. Slowly the smell of burnt oil would warn us to take our cool down lap, and come in for inspection.

The leak got worse. What used to take several minutes of flogging at high revs now occurred as soon as the engine was warm. No subtlety this time. Simply accelerating around a street corner would immediately reward us with a nasty puff of smoke from the engine compartment. Time to fix this once and for all.

Once we had the old cover off - it was easier to spot the culprit. Hairline fractures spun out from the filler neck in 3 directions. The oil wasn’t leaking from the top of the filler neck as we suspected. As the oil splashed up into the inside of the filler neck, (remember - no baffle)  it would seep out through these cracks and the gap where the filler neck meets the cover.

Our new valve cover arrived from Summit Racing the day after we ordered it. (we only have a few weekends left before our next event - so the extra $25 overnight fee seemed cheap if we could get started right away.) In no time we had the new valve cover lined up to test clearance. We opted for the Summit brand rubber gasket with steel core SUM-G2321. This gasket is much thicker than our previous one. The extra space provided by the gasket - and the recess of the new valve cover baffle allowed everything to fit. Yeah! we had a baffle again! We buttoned down everything finger tight, and hand cranked the motor to check for any interference with the rocker arms. Success.

Time to button it down. No special instructions came with the valve cover or the Summit brand gasket - so we referred to our shop manual for torque specs. 10-13 foot pounds. We began our cycle through the six fasteners. Imagine our surprise when we hit a spot that sounded like peanut brittle. That’s right. 2/3 of the way to the world-crushing force of 12 foot pounds - our valve cover signaled ‘No Mas.’

Good thing we still have some time before the next event. Time to find another “fix” and go wait out front for the guy in the brown van to stop by. Again.