Let me begin with a small story.

I have a friend staying over for the weekend. We went out for a photo op last night in my car. After driving around for about 30 mins, he got out at a gas station to run in and use the facilities. I noticed that he was sitting on my tape measue for the entirety of the time we were out. I moved the tape measure to uncover a 3" tear in my leather seat. When telling my friend about it he replied with" it had a stain anyways so itt needed to be replaced anyways...
then I woke up this morning, started my car to warm it up and noticed smoke coming from under the hood, opened the hood and the front valve cover gasket is spewing oil all over the exhaust manifold.

 

Augi... That sucks. Weren't you noticing a valve cover leak earlier though? It may not have been you. What's the plan?

 

That sucks. Is your friend , by chance, a fat ***?

 

Oh man. I would be so pissed. I know how you feel about the valve cover gasket. Been there man. Not something I wish on anyone.

But the icing on the cake is the tear in your leather seat. I don't care if there was a stain in the leather. That can be repaired easier than a 3" rip. First of all, how the hell can he sit on a tape measure and not notice it??? Secondly, the very least he could've done was appologize.

That just bugs the crap out of me when people do something wrong and don't show any remorse over it. Even worse when they come out with, "Oops.....my bad". My fantasy reply to that: Here, let me punch you in the face buddy. Oops....My bad!

 

Greg: I did know it was going to go out. It was getting to the point where gunk would just form around the edges of the valve cover, now its SPRAYING oil. Running like it has a vacuum leak. I was awaiting warmer weather to change it, gut now I guess 19* weather wouldbe sufficient

 

That sux man. Your friend kind of sounds like a jerk. I would be extremely angry if someone ripped my leather seats.

About the valve cover gasket, it's really easy to do (especially the front one). It's something like $13 for both the front and rear gaskets and can be done in about 20-30 minutes for both of them. However, in the cold it will probably be longer. Good luck, and just remember that it's a simple repair.

 

That sucks man. I have a friend who is like that. Completely oblivious to the fact that people actually value their possessions. Tracks mud into my car, trashes my house whenever he is over. Stuff like that. If he would have torn my seat I would have rung his neck tho.

 

GM has been bad about valve cover gaskets for about all of their existence. The old one is stuck like white on Michael Jackson most likely, if it's like our Suburban and pick up truck we changed them on. My Monte Carlo isn't leaking (yet), but I know a lot of people complain about this job....

If only it were like my torino... take the pcv valve off on cover, 6 bolts each, scrap the gasket, and take them off....

Taht's the thing about older cars... easier to work on, but you did it a lot more often. Today's cars can nearly run forever.

 

......

 

It's pretty amazing how many people can sit down in a car and not realize that they're sitting on something that would be very uncomfortable to sit on.

As far as the valve cover leak...careful man, there was a recall on the 3800's because a number of them caught on fire due to leaking valve covers....hot oil + hot exhaust mani = no good.

On the monte...remove icm bracket, remove a few bolts, no scraping required.
Our gaskets are a rubber seal yo. No need to scrape at all. Pry it up if it sticks, and use a dab of rtv or something similar to keep it in the channel when you reinstall.