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[scog]

hi
had the car a week now and the problems just keep cropping up i now have what i think is an oil leak from the rocker cover.
i have a pair on order from vauxhall(another £62.50)but it will now be sunday before i can fit them.
the only worry i have is when the engine gets up to temp oil is dropping somewhere and there is smoke coming from under the bonnet not a lot but it is quite disconcerting when you stop at lights etc.
what i would like to know is am i safe driving with the car like this
when i lift the bonnet the smoke seems to be coming from the left side of the engine under the middle plug lead.
am planning on doing an oil and filter change at the same time as the gasket and also clear the oilways
regards
mark

[TheBoy]

is it oil thats burning (most likely on exhaust)?

[Darth Loo-knee]

hi
had the car a week now and the problems just keep cropping up i now have what i think is an oil leak from the rocker cover.
i have a pair on order from vauxhall(another £62.50)but it will now be sunday before i can fit them.
the only worry i have is when the engine gets up to temp oil is dropping somewhere and there is smoke coming from under the bonnet not a lot but it is quite disconcerting when you stop at lights etc.
what i would like to know is am i safe driving with the car like this
when i lift the bonnet the smoke seems to be coming from the left side of the engine under the middle plug lead.
am planning on doing an oil and filter change at the same time as the gasket and also clear the oilways
regards
mark

Best of doing these jobs though Mark, is that You know they have been done if that makes any sense....

When you say oilways I assume you mean the Breathers?

Everything you need to know about Cam Cover Gaskets and Breathers will be in The Maintence Section
 along with some Ace pictures

[markey mark]

yea its safe bud just oil smokeing doesnt take alot of oil to create a lot of smoke !!  

[scog]

thanks gents
not looking forward to sunday first time under a vauxhall how long should i allow for the job and will i need to buy any tools etc before i start
i dont have any torx sockets what size will i need for the bolts
and are they freely available
regards
mark

[omegalord]

Hi,

I was like yourself first timer under anomega hood. I did my the whole job from start to finish in just under 4hrs and that was doing the rocker gaskets, cleaning all the breathers out and cleaning all the oil out of the spak plug wells. Its not hard really , but i would take your time and try to remember where everything goes. The only pain i had was the EGR. Took me ages to get it off the plenum as the bolts on the underside wouldnt move for love nor money.

Good Luck

Matt  

[The Cambelt Kid]

I took 1 day, although i did some LPG work on the inlet manifold at the same time.  

As the others say, take your time and make sure you thoroughly clean both surfaces, you don't want to do it again 5 minutes down the line.  Don't use any sharp metalic items to scrape the old gasket off, i used a wooden splint and a rag soaked in IPA to do mine.

I'm a computer geek and not a car engineer so if i can do it, anyone can!  

[ians]

you need an 8Nm (quite low) torque wrench when putting it back together.  worth doing spark plugs at the same time.   You don't need to remove the EGR from the plenum. Also I left the throttle cable attached to the throttle body as couldn't unclip it.    There a lot of things to undo/refit but nothing fundamentally difficult - just take pictures/ label pipes (eg the two fuel pipes, vacuum pipes at the back) so you know where they go when reassembling.   Make sure you have a good supply of carb cleaner available.