Unsurprisingly, the valve cover gaskets are leaking, all along the passenger side and only at the corner near the oil fill port (and alternator) on the driver's side.

Doing the right hand gasket looks really easy: remove a few spark plug wires and perhaps a hose or two and the cover unbolts right off. The driver's side looks like hours more to R&R the entire intake manifold and everything on it.

The factory manual isn't particularly helpful; it only seems to have the pages for removing the entire cylinder heads (page EM-29), which obviously includes a lot of hopelessly unnecessary stuff (exhaust manifolds, camshafts!).

Is the right valve cover as easy at it looks? Do I need any anything other than the valve cover gasket (no. 11213-62020) and the spark plug well gaskets (no. 11193-16010)? I guess I should inspect the valve clearance at the same time. Does anyone know of a simpler writeup on the web? I searched these forums and a few sites, but nothing turned up.

Thanks,
-Alex

'97 T100 4x4, ~150k

The FSM is pretty thorough. Follow the steps to do the valve checks and it tells you every thing you need to do to get the covers off.

Yes, its a lot of work to get the intake and hoses and wires out of the way.
For the driver's side you'd probably only need to remove the intake and plug wires, but I don't see why you'd bother to do only one side, especially when the other one is already leaking.

The valve cover gaskets on these engines don't seem to last much past 60k. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Got the same problem with my 93. Not leaking much, just enuf to be annoying. Not going through the pain to wipe up a drip. Besides, being in upstate NY, oil on stuff is better than salt.....