2001 Montero Sport Valve Cover gasket change procedure?
 

My new (to me) 01 Montero sport needs valve cover gaskets bad. Leaking right on the manifold and stinking up the whole neighborhood. I bought a manual from ebay, but a procedure to replace the gaskets is not present. Any good resources. I found a link to a procedure from a post from 2007, but that link is dead now.

It looks like the intake and other stuff needs to come off. I don't want to just start removing stuff and waiting for surprises and unplanned trips to the auto parts store.

Thanks! :confused:

You pretty much have to dig into it :) You'll need to remove intake manifold (plenum), spark plug wires. Then just remove bolts that hold the valve cover on the cylinder head and you are there. You may need to tap the cover with a rubber mallet to loosen the bond between the gasket and the top of the head (they tend to "weld on" over time). There were posts here earlier suggesting using a heat gun to soften the old gasket material as you are removing it. Poke around, find those posts and roll up your sleeves. It is a good and fun project for a long evening or weekend.

Pretty Much what Hunter said... Have a ball n just dig in.

Planning on doing this tomorrow. Do I need to change the intake plenum gasket as well? Also, might as well change plugs while I'm in there. Do you know which plugs are best?

Anferney, I put in bosh iridium plugs n yes I changed the plenum gasket too. While you are there you may want to check out the rear valve seals between the firewall and the motor. They are O-Rings and seem to leak when the valve cover seals leak. Easy to change and cause a lot of smoking also. The whole job shouldn't take that long and is a nice project seeing as you can't screw up the wiring. Just take the wiring off and unbolt the whole Plenum and you don't have to split the upper plenum and lower Plenum to do this. There will be the spark plug seals with the kit. Tap on them and they come right off. Yes they are rubber but aged very well..lol. good luck.

Finished this bear of a job today. The gaskets were absolutely fused with the valve cover. The heat gun was essential and I would have never thought of that. I would have just worked on it for hours and hours and cussed a lot. Not sure where the o rings are that you speak of. I wish I had read that earlier since I'm done now. If the leaking doesn't stop, I suppose I could go back in there, but I sure don't want to. I can't still can't believe that all this must be done for a plug change. I did learn a lot of techniques that will make next time easier.

I did break the plastic thing that connects the throttle body rubber boot to the passenger side valve cover via a vacuum hose. Does anyone know of a place to order (with an illustration) such small detailed parts?

Hi Anferney, I don't know about the rubber boot unless ur talking about the PCV valve but the Orings I was referring to are located in the rear of the motor, Between the firewall n the motor. The rear cam seals seem to leak all the time. If you don't have oil leaking from the rear of the motor than I wouldn't worry about it. I seems like they start leaking when the valve cover gaskets leak also the spark plug seals inside the valve covers. I know it's a tough and ongoing job just to post a photo on here but a picture would be nice for the rubber part.

Here is the best I can do here. I have looked at all the IPL's online and can't find it. It's a little plastic male-male junction (green) that joins the intake boot to a vacuum hose (blue) that goes into the passenger side valve cover (red).

OOOHHHH I see what your talking about now..lol
However I take it you lost it right...Try a piece of pipe there and some RTV silicone to glue it in until you get the right part... Remember you get what you pay for and replacing with the proper part is a big difference at 2AM on a cold winters morning..lol

I tried to drive it for the first time yesterday and it had almost no power. It would start and idle OK although I did hear some weird coughing sounds. I thought it was due to vacuum leak in the boot. I went under the hood to check that and that wasn't it. I had taped the boot hole to prevent that issue and it wasn't loose. What I did notice when under the hood was that the exhaust on the passenger side was glowing cherry red hot. I shut the engine off and wondered? What did I touch that could have caused this? My first thought was that there was a blockage. However, the only way that could have happened is through the intake manifold. I taped that off as soon as I removed the plenum, so I know that wasn't it.

Then, later I remembered taking off the spark plug wires and seeing the #3 and #5 markings on the wires seemingly reversed. I thought to myself at the time, some dummy wasn't paying attention to the wire labels when he was putting them on. Now, I'm not so sure it was a mistake. The spark plug wires are plugged in three sets of pairs of 'distributors'. I plugged them in from left to right like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6

However, when I removed the wires in the beginning, they were labeled like this:
1 2 5 4 3 6
I trace those wires back to the actual cylinder they were attached to because I just thought that the installer put the #3 wire on the #5 cylinder and didn't see the need.

Here are my questions:
What is the cylinder assignment of the spark plug wires from left to right?
Would the vehicle still run with #5 and #3 reversed?
Would that cause the exhaust to get so hot that it glowed cherry red?

I can post a picture tonight. It was really quite amazing to look at.