Thinking about replacing your VQ Valve Cover Gaskets? Read this first.

[NovaPath]

The internet seems to be lacking on a DIY on these things. That being said, unfortunately I did not document my project well enough to create one myself, but thought I would post a couple of suggestions prior to diving into this.

 

First, expect your hands and fore-arms to get all sorts of scratched up. You need to have jedi-like ninja hands or just deal with the pain when removing some of the hard to see vacuum lines and connectors.

 

Second, in addition the the valve cover gaskets themselves have the following items purchased: Breather hose(mine crumbled), PCV valve(same crumbling problem), and PCV hose(again, crumbling...see a trend here?). Make sure you purchase the plug seals as well, you don't want to be dead in the water when you realize one is cracked or in two pieces all together! It is also a good idea to have both the upper and lower manifold gasket sets available. Mine had seen better days, and since I had to stop mid project to wait on these other parts figured I'd just replace them also. An assortment of different sized vacuum lines and connectors would not be a bad idea, either.

 

Third, this is a prime time to do your spark plugs. Adds 10 minutes tops to the job.

 

Fourth, there are two 12mm bolts on the back side of the lower plenum that you have to remove in order to remove the lower plenum. They are torqued tight, and you can't fit a normal ratchet on them. You will need either a boxed in 12mm, or some sort of slim line ratchet. An open ended 12mm resulted in me stripping out the bolt and having to bust out the dremmel.

 

Fifth, you DO NOT have to remove the fuel rail. It is a tight fit on the passenger side(bank 1), but it is doable without removing the rail.

 

Hope this helps someone, I know it would have helped me!

[whatchugot12]

Thanks man! I am looking to have this done to my 2001 4x4 5spd 3.5l soon as I get around to it so I'll pass this information along!

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Saturn]

I did mine recently, the plastic around the tube seals cracked when I tried to remove them. If you have a high mileage VQ (180 on mine) consider replacing the whole valve cover. Its plastic and warps over time and may be compromised. Mine were 400$ for the set because I had to rush them from a dealership, but they may be cheaper elsewhere.

[NovaPath]

Saturn: I hate to break it to you, but the outside of the tube seals is the plastic part, not the valve covers....The new tube seals press into the metal valve cover housing(I used a bfg very lightly to tap them in). They were, a bear to get out and I can definitely understand why you would have thought that. Not intended to make you feel bad, but for others reading there is no reason to replace the actual valve covers themselves.

[NovaPath]

Alright folks, looks like I owe Saturn an apology. I can tell you with 100% certainty that my 01 valve covers are metal with removable spark plug tube seals, however after doing some internet research prompted from Saturn's reply, it turns out that there was a change at some point in production switching those to plastic.

With how brittle everything that is plastic is down there, I am in definite agreement that they should be changed out as well if you have plastic ones....