Have been trying to fix 1989 Trooper valve cover leak for 2 years since I bought. I installed new AMC head and have tried different brand valve cover gaskets, with & without RTV. Nothing seems to hold up past 1 month or so. From the last owner's receipts, she paid many times to have this same leak fixed. The valve cover design has no baffle to prevent oil from pooling against the gasket, but otherwise appears OK. Anybody have any luck with fixing this leak once and for-all (at least until I set the valves at every 12K)? Or is this a common occurance with this motor?

Where's it leaking from? Has the valve cover been checked to make sure it's not warped, the flange is straight?

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

My '88 first started leaking around 80K miles, and not very badly. I lived with it until around 100K when I changed out the head. That was last July, and another 5K miles since then with no leakage.

Make sure yer not over tightening the hold-down bolts, and like Richard sez, check the cover carefully for defects.

DEFINITELY make sure of that. Those bolts are very little. 7 ft lbs is sticking in my head right now. They definitely aren't much. Just run them down by hand and lightly snug them with a ratchet and that's about right.

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Richard, yer glue is still good. I just double checked the manual, and that is correct!

If it's coming from the front of the valve cover, I suspect your cam seal being the leaky bugger! That's my problem right now... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for everybody's replies. The first time I installed the cover I torqued to about 7 lb-ft. My book says 1.0 kg-m or 7.2 lbs-ft or 84 lbs-in. That didn't work. I will inspect the cover again for warpage. The best luck I had was to lather up both the top and bottom of the gasket with RTV. But what a pain to clean off when removing to set the valves. I did install a new cam seal when I replaced the head. The leak appears to be coming from the front of the motor, maybe around the semi-circle in the front of the cover, but its hard to tell. I did notice that the casting date inside the cover was 93 or so (can't remember these days <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/sleeping.gif" alt="" />), so maybe the cover was replaced earlier before I bought. Anybody know of any difference in the covers from 89 thru 93?

That's a quite common place for them to leak.
Don't use RTV on the gasket sealing surface, there is no need.
If put on correctly, it won't leak.

When you put the gasket in the valve cover, put just a tiny
drop of RTV in the gasket grove every 4 inches around the cover to help keep the gasket in the cover.
Turn the cover upside down on a piece of cardboard and put
a weight on it (something like a car battery) and let
it sit for 30 minutes or so.

Just before you put the valve cover back on, put a thin
layer of RTV over the seams of the half moon cam plug
at the back of the head. Also put a tiny dab in the
corners of the front most cam tower (the one the seal goes in).
Then, put the valve cover on and tighten the to spec,
starting with the center and working to the outter two.
Don't torque them down to 7lbs right off the bat.
Start at 3 or 4 and bring them down slowly.

There are differences in various years in the way the breather hose attaches to the cylinder head cover, but I believe the mating surface between cover and head is the same for all 2.6 engines. Do not over tighten the nuts; it is possible to crack the head cover.

Yeah, there were two different nipples.

One was a straight out nipple and the other was a 90 degree.
Hose size and location on the cover was the same.