'88 Supra Center valve cover

Are you talking about the cover over the valley between the cam towers? I don't recall anyone ever mentioning that the heater hose has to come off, so it should come out without having to mess with the hose.

Boy, I hope so. Someone mentioned something about the center cover once (Danny G., I think it was. I think the hose goes through the center cover...

I could remove the two cam covers, then remove the center cover and clean it still 'on the car'. It's pretty bad...

Head cover #3

Assuming your Supra is like mine then you do not have to remove the hose. Just the hose bracket.

The center cover (head cover #3) is just a piece of sheet metal and comes off by removing the three oil galley plugs. By the way, if they were loose it would cause a oil/vacuum leak.

It would be a good idea to make sure that center cover is water tight when your done because water could get trapped in there. If that happens it wont even evaporate. (like water in a sealed jar)

I ran a bead of sealer for the center cover and thread compound on the three big allen head plugs. That made it immune to the garden hose again. 8)

GL Dan

I'm going to try to NOT remove it, but it appears there may have been a gasket under there (that is now TOAST!)

I cleaned it up with a bucket and a vacuum, like a bell jar type deal, but when it came to the sludge, I just tused the vacuum.

Head over to alt.binaries.images.fun to see the Before and After. The headers are "The Problem 1,2 & 3" (posted by Vash the Stampede...)

OK...now, when I get the valve covers back on, can I just run a bead of gasket maker along the center head cover?

And, should I use some of the gasket maker under the new valve cover gaskets I have? Perhaps just a slight bead, or...?

Now, to torque the headbolts...

There is no gasket. But the whole cover is coated with some plastic like stuff that was cracked and chipping off on mine. I got it all off with a good cleaning. Then I used the silicon (or whatever it was) sealer left over from the tube I opened for the four drops the valve covers need.

That stuff's nasty. I ran a bead of silicon sealer on the bottom of that cover so it will not show or be a problem removing the valve covers nevt time.

You need about 4 drops total for the front cam bearing caps/head seam. I really cant see the valve covers leaking unless the screws were loose or way to tight. Lock-tight is the important part or they will not stay tight.

eeek!

Oh that link's step #4 SST is for the oil galley plugs. The one with the clamp bolted to it came loose on my car and leaked oil on the exhaust.

Ah...THAT's what it means by 'seal packing'...

Like I mentioned...ONE was loose. It was about 50 Ft Lbs. The rest didn't move up to 70!

What in holy hell are you up to? Did you get it off already?

Hey!

No, I left it in place. Cleaned it rewal well and got the 1/2" of gunk and sludge off it.

Ready to put the valve covers back on...$3 each for washers?!?!?!

So, my next obsession. I have some washers with bonded rubber washers on them, about 1/8" thick and looks like thin metal.

I also have some neoprene faucet washers, they are the right size. Do I need the meat part. The old ones are too thick (when combined with the neoprene washers), the new ones look too thin, and the combination of the metal bonded washer and the neoprene washer looks too thick.

I'm going to measure the thread depth to make sure there is enough thread to grab it and then decide. Goint without the metal part seems to be the best bet...?

The metal part is needed to maintain a constant pressure. I would suspect that if you only used the squishy part you may get some leaks or deterioration after a while. That's just what I've heard, though. Never xperienced it. Anyway, you need some factory pages for this thing? I'm back in my old stomping grounds here in DC for a few weeks, and I might could swing by the old dealership and get you some info for this beast if you need it.

There is a TSRM on line for an '87, and one for a '90. I also have the Haynes manual.

I do some homework before tackling a job like this! Shoot, this was all started by wanting to change the Spark Plugs!

Yeah, it always goes down like that. A while back I was just going to measure the tappets on my old Suzuki bike on Saturday, next thing I know I'm calling my friend to ask if I can use his blast cabinet to clean the head and block I have sitting on the floor next to me.

Honestly I dont know...I do know the 4ag is simular in design and I can remove mine without removing my heaterhose.

enorym.com monstertorque.net

(Um, yeah, but YOU know what you're doing!)

I used to have a couple Yamaha DT (on-off road) dirt bikes I rebuilt, but they were 2-strokes...