Oil leaking somewhere

Thanks for posting this. I have a similar situation and I'm also interested to hear the responses.

I have a 1999 Forester with about 136k mi.

I occasionally smell oil after lengthy trips. I didn't spot the spark plug boots until a couple of days ago when I decided to track down why my Forester hesitated/stumbled a bit on acceleration. I think I found part of the solution in a stuck PCV. I also found that my spark plug boots were covered in oil which seemed to come from the valve cover seals.

Was it difficult to replace the valve cover seals? I'm not very experienced. I imagine that the valve cover seals would be tricky to keep in position until the valve cover is in place. Is that true? How much torque should one use on the valve cover bolts?

Yes, please: I'd like to know more about this, too. Thanks

On Tue, 20 May 2008 14:59:35 -0500, against all advice, something compelled "dnoyeB" , to say:

I would never sit at a red light for more than a day.

Extremely easy on the passenger side. 5 bolts facing left, 1 facing front. The seals sit in a grove so they don't fall out while you place it. But in addition to the valve cover which goes around the edge of the cover, there are some "boots" that go on the inside of the cover right at the spark plug. Thats what you have leaking. Those are just as easy on the passenger side. Driver side is probably going to require some more parts be removed before the cover will come off.

Just doing my part to keep the economy "rolling"

Check the PCV valve, when the valve plugs up with crude it raises the case pressure which makes seals leak and oil drip onto the exhaust manifold. Cheap fix that also improves engine performance.

The part that goes around the spark plug that was leaking is called a "PIP" at least that is what was on the package. I removed the washer bottle, and that made the drives side pretty easy. 5 screws. the cover seal is easy too. Hardest thing is getting the cover out of the area because its tight.

So each side has

Oh, and the screws are not all the same size, and the pattern of sizes is not the same on the left and the right.

Now I'm hunting down that PCV...

I found mine screwed into the intak manifold, top side, toward the back, and toward the passenger side.

Sounds like a cam cover gasket is leaking to me, I've got the same problem , just need to find time to bring it to the shop. From what I've heard it reasonable common & reasonably cheap to fit. Just use genuine Subaru gaskets.