I went for an oil change a few weeks back and the technician pointed out that my valve cover gasket needs to be changed. I am not sure how long it has been leaking. This is how my valve cover looks (see pic 1 and 2 in attachments below)
I have a few questions related to this. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Question 1: How do we remove the wires attached to the rear passenger end of the valve cover? It seems to be attached to a to the valve cover using a zip tie kind of thing (see image 3 below). There is a nut at the base of the zip tie. Will loosening it release the wires from the valve cover?
Question 2: What is the part that looks like a laptop battery that runs parallel to the valve cover in the driver side? (see image 4 below) is it actually bolted to the valve cover? Will I need to unbolt this?
Question 3: This laptop battery thing is attached to the wires behind the valve cover (driver side) near the firewall. Looks like it will be a pain during the work. Any tips for this?
Question 4: I could only feel (cannot see) the bolt on the driver side rear of the valve cover. it felt like a larger bolt. Is this correct or am i feeling something else?
That part that looks like a laptop battery is actually the ignition rail that sits over the top of the spark plugs. It provides the spark voltage to the spark plugs. Yes, unbolt it and swing it back towards the rear. Once the bolts are removed, just pull straight up working alternately front to back to work to free it. It's only held to the spark plugs by its rubber boots.
Edit I'm talking about the passenger side of the valve cover. The fuel rail is on the driver's side of the valve cover.
Thank you Big Sarge! so for question 1, do you mean i need to loosen the nut below it and then pull it straight up? or can i just pull it straigt up without doing anyting?
Also, the fuel rail will not be bolted to the valve cover? In that case, yes, i can leave it alone.
Typically they are 11 MM stud/bolts and you will need a deep well socket. If you can get the Felpro gasket which for service purposes can be reused rather than the cheapo cork type gaskets. The clips for the heater hose lift straight up as well, also you may find a plastic clip rail for your spark plug wires that has to be (carefully) unbolted for removal.
The pieces that hold the wires just pull straight up, nothing to unbolt as it is just friction fit over the stud.
The part in your 4th pic is the wire harness cover and should be able to remain in place
Thanks jimsJeep. Sorry to ask this again, but will the clips for the heater hose lift straight up without loosening the nut that attached it to the valve cover? can I just hold the clip near the hose and pull it up?
Navela78 - You didn't describe your vehicle's specs at all so I'm trying to help you clear up the earlier replies to your post...I'm thinking you have an early model TJ with the I4??? I see what looks like a large air box which makes me think I4 and I don't really see an ignition rail so I'm thinking early model TJ. If my deductions are correct, then you don't have an ignition rail, but rather a distributor cap and plug wires on the passenger side of your Jeep. That should help to clear up the fact that the piece you are referring to is a fuel rail??? Let us know what is under your hood for full clarification; then the guys can really help you out.
All, thank you. My question 1 is answered. i should just be able to pull the pieces that are holding the wires in pic 3 right up.
wheeliemay, you are absolutely right. I should have given my specs. It is a 2001 TJ. 2.5 L 4 cylinder engine. You are absolutely right the passenger side did not have any rails. It just had a cap with some wires coming out of it.
The drivers side had this rail. It ran parallel to the valve cover for almost its entire length. In the rear end it actually seemed (I am not 100% sure, I can check tomorrow) to connect to the wires that I am showing in pic 3. It looked like the wire that is going behind my valve cover in pic 3 connected to that rail and it made the valve cover bolts in that area (driver side rear) hard to access.
Here is a pic taken by standing in front of the jeep and looking into the firewall. The rail is on the driver side going almost all the way to the rear of valve cover
Is that wire harness cover or fuel rail? should that be left alone? It has a couple of points where it protrudes to top of the valve cover. I am not sure if it is actually bolted to the valve cover. If it is not bolted should I just leave it alone and just work around when I am lifting the valve cover?
The section that looks like a laptop battery is nothing more than a cover for the wiring harness and it can stay in place but is easily removable if it gets in your way. It is held in place by friction caps that slide over 2 of the head bolt studs, and can be gently pried up with a long screwdriver. I had mine off last Sunday.
Yes, will be careful. But it is 115 inch pounds, correct? Just want to make sure I have the right numbers ... there are several different numbers on the threads but the copy of FSM i have says 115 inch pounds (see pic above).
Thank you all for your help so far. I appreciate it. This evening I will try cleaning the outside of the engine valve cover with some brake cleaner (suggested here as a cleaning material CDM Fabrication ) to reduce my work on the weekend when I am going to remove the valve cover.
Should I be worried to remove the valve cover in my apartment parking lot with trees around (possible dust). Do I have to bug my friend to borrow his garage?
Thank you all for your help so far. I appreciate it. This evening I will try cleaning the outside of the engine valve cover with some brake cleaner (suggested here as a cleaning material CDM Fabrication ) to reduce my work on the weekend when I am going to remove the valve cover.
Should I be worried to remove the valve cover in my apartment parking lot with trees around (possible dust). Do I have to bug my friend to borrow his garage?
What do you guys use to clean the inside and outside of valve cover and the head?
I don't seem to find a engine degreaser that is good on plastic or a brake cleaner( like the one proposed in the link above) that seem to be ok with high temperature
Please provide a link for it in autozone if possible ...
Thanks Jerry and Laggy. I bought an engine degreaser from autozone for the project. It is supposed to be hosed down with water after cleaning.
I am planning to use it on the head (only where the cover gasket sits) sparingly and clean it with wet cloth. Sorry to ask again, but is this an issue? Not sure if this stuff can really be used to clean the head.
For the inside and outside of the cover, I can use a lot of the degreaser and hose it down. I am pretty sure this is not an issue.
There are three wires running on top of the valve cover. do you guys work around it while removing the valve cover or do we need to unplug it? Please see pictures below
The first picture is taken from the passenger side of the vehicle looking across the valve cover into the regions where these wires go. The third wire (from left) seems to have a plug like thing. The first two do not. Can we pull it?
The wires in your second pic can be removed from the clip and lifted up and out of the way as you need. One is the accelerator cable and the others are I guess you have cruise control.
orlandoTJ, this is an excellent writeup. I really appreciate it. I can't thank you enough on how useful this is going to be for me and for fellow newb's. It was great to see the possible problems that I may run into. I am guessing yours is a 6 cylinder engine because my engine bay looks slightly different. Mine is 4 cylinder 2.5 L Automatic transmission. One difference is that there is a big plastic box that sits on top of my throttle body (I think it is the air cleaner) and is bolted to the valve cover.
Today I degreased the engine as much as possible and mapped out where the bolts are. i was able to find 12 bolts that I need to unfasten. There were of couple of different types (I am calling A and B in the figure below. Could someone confirm that there are only 12 bolts?.
All, thank you so much for your help so far. I am very close to being confident about handling this project tomorrow. The only thing I am nervous about now is the component (I think it is called the air cleaner), the left side of which is attached to the top of the valve cover using 2 small bolts (8 and 11 in my drawing above).
I am planning to unbolt 8 and 11 and wiggle the valve cover out without messing with the air cleaner. Will this work? The right side bottom of the air cleaner is connected to the throttle body (?) and seems like a hard job if I want to completely remove it.
Any tips?
Also, if we ignore these two small bolts, I think the valve cover is kept in place only by 10 bolts in the 2001 2.5L engine (automatic transmission)
No big deal, 5/16 nut driver will remove the 2 bolts on the valve cover and you will have to loosen the clamps on top of the throttle body (under the air box) and the air duct which runs across to the air cleaner housing, they are also also 5/16. There will be a hose on the back side of the air box which runs to the valve cover which you can disconnect from the air box. Avoid trying to remove the hose from the valve cover as the plastic fitting into the valve cover can be prone to breakage.
Thanks for your advice JimsJeep! Yes, I did notice that the air box was attached to the throttle body with a clamp, which I can loosen with a screw driver. What happens when its loose? Will the air box just lift right off or will I only be able to move it out of my way? I am asking because when I looked at it yesterday there seemed (I am not sure) to be some wires attached air box and I did not want to mess with them if it is not necessary.
Yes, I was planning to loosen the clamps on both sides of the air duct (one side is the air box pointed with arrow in the pic above and other side is the box that contains the air filter) and removing it completely.
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