valve cover bolts

[Ryan Slater]

I was just looking around my engine bay tighting some bolts up and i came to notice that all but one of my valve cover bolts (like the 3 on the front under "dohc" 2 on the left side and 3 on the rear) were all loose. Some of them will not even tighten, and i just want to kinda of confirm that these bolts are supposed to be bolted tight right :oops:

As well, the bolts inside the valve cover within the spark plugs are also loose and some of them are stripped and will not tighten. Im stunned buy how most of these were completely loose. Again....these should all be torqed relatively tight correct?

[Nathan Tralenberg]

umm, I only torque mine to about 30 lb could probably even go less, they arent suppose to be that tight, if your pulling hard on them you could have stripped them, It is aluminum after all

[Ryan Slater]

Ok well half seem completly stripped and its not the bolts but rather the threads inside. I know their is a gasket in their and half the bolts are holding, do you think thats enough. Is it worth taking off the valve cover and getting the holes professionaly threaded again? If im not mistaken, its not the actual valve cover threads that are stripped right, but rather into the engine under the valve cover?

[Robin Toor]

The valve cover bolts are supposed to be snug, if they are over tightened they can strip, which is probably what happened. I wouldn't worry about the spark plug cover bolts, but I would worry if half of your valve cover bolts are stripped and not tightening. If there are some oil leaks coming out of the valve cover I would get it fixed.

[Ryan Slater]

Their has not been any significant oil looks that i have noticed coming out of valve cover. I have not properly checked the back side of it, so i will do that tonight.

[Scott Girvin]

The factory service manual says 2.2ft/lbs for the valve cover bolts. They call it a "rocker cover."

[Michael Cummings]

You also need to be really careful when tightening the bolts in the spark plug well, because the valve cover can very easily crack in those corners.

[John Hartman]

Scotts right, they are listed in inch/lbs, very low torque.

If you have a stripped head, you need to heli-coil the existing holes. If you haven't done it before, either practice on something else, like a dead head, or get it done at a trusted shop.

The good news is it will be stronger when done.

the idea isn't to crank em tight, cause even if you don't strip one, you will most likely crack your cover.  

and the gasket isn't designed to be cranked on so it will probably leak if it is.