Hey guys,

So last week I replaced my valve cover gasket. During the installation, I hadn't noticed that one of the support post on the front right, that the bolt goes through, had cracked. These post prevent the valve cover from being tightened up so much that it pinches and cuts the gasket. Since mine had cracked, it was able to spread out around the spacer, and press much lower. This caused it to cut into the gasket. At first, it wasn't noticeable.

I had gone to a friends house, and took a drive to the fuels tation, on that drive, I noticed my oil pressure wasn't going any higher then a little over 2 bar. I immediately knew something was wrong. I carefully drove the car to the fuel station, and opened the hood to find that the valve cover gasket had indeed split on the front side of it. This of course was pouring oil.

I didn't have the option to tow at that point. I went in and got 2 quarts of oil, poured them in, and made the 15min drive home. I drove slowly and carefully. At first, the car was able to maintain 3 bar without issue, but as it lost oil, it was running more at 2.5 bar and would go up to 3 if I was careful. Then it was between 1.5 and 2. It never got below 1 bar, and only ever went below 1.5 for a few sec, usually at idle. I never let the engine get passed 2,500rpms, and really rarely exceeded 2,000rpms.

I got it home, and shut it down. It was a mess. I gave it a quick hose off, just to get a lot of the settled oil off of the engine.

The next day I got a new gasket, and pulled the valve cover. That's when I discovered the damaged post. I was able to set up a washer that prevented the valve cover from going lower then it should, but still allowed it to go as low as it did before. Even then, I lightly tightened the bolts, just to be safe. As of right now, I can tell the valve cover is not oil tight, but I have a new one on the way, so I'm just trying to avoid the same gasket situation until I receive the new one.

I've been really monitoring things under the hood since then, I changed the gasket out on Monday and drove it to work Tuesday, and Wednesday. The only thing I noticed was a few drips of oil on the ground, which I figure is from the valve cover not being really tight. My oil pressure has been great, engine has seemed strong, no new noises, all seemed well.


Today, I had to make an extended highway drive, which involved about 25-30min of steady 65mph, which was about a steady 3000rpms. I did that there and back, so about 50-60min total, with a break in the middle. The car ran fine, no issues. Even felt quite strong. I got to work and went to check things under the hood, and before I opened it, I noticed that the spots on the hood above the headlights had oil on them, which had streaked up the hood a bit. As if oil was trying to force its way out, and settled on that spot of the hood. It wasn't an excessive amount, but it was there. I checked the blow by real quick, it was there, but it didn't seem any more prominent then before.

Anyone got any ideas? I looked around and didn't notice an excessive amount of oil around any particular components or anything. Is there any components I could've damaged in the drive home with the low oil pressure that would be causing this now?

Thanks guys!

-Tony

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1984 Mercedes-Benz 300D