94 e320 valve cover gasket change observations
 

Well I must say that our 94 had a bit of an oil leak. I knew the front section of the valve cover gasket was leaking when we bought the car in late Spring of '02. I just got around to the change of the gasket this weekend along with my first oil change peformed by me on this car. The first one in our ownership was done by the dealer who sold us the car. When I pulled off the lower shroud to access the drain bolt I notice a fair amount of oil and gunk :( Now the shroud is clean enough to eat off of :)


My biggest observation was how brittle the various MB plastic clips/harness bits were. I must have snap about 1/2 dozen various retaining clips. The most brittle were the retaners for the plug wires under the access panel of the valave cover.

The gasket change was uneventful except for the removal of the coil packs? from the valve cover. At least they appear to be coil packs. Only after removing the cover from the cover did I notice that the can be pulled out separately :) The separation of these from the cover made the reinstall so much easier. Did anyone else have trouble keeping the main gasket and the six circle gaskets to stay in place during reinstall?

I do need to get new wires. Several of the plug ends had some rubber missing where it met the plug. Probably oil corrosion of the rubber that seep by the valve cover gaskets into the wells. I'll change the plugs at the same time.

Any suggestions on plugs and wires? Bosch?