Spanx alot guys......Barney is back on da road for real now. I fixed the oil leak that I had on the drivers side.
The valve cover gasket had fallen in on the top of the valve cover, so I tried to fix it by just taking the valve cover bolts loose and maneuvering it into place. I thought that fixed the problem, but to my dismay........it made it WORSE. When I was maneuvering the gasket up top, the bottom portion slipped out of the groove......which caused a HUGE smoke show as the oil leaked out onto EVERYTHING, and burning. I could barely see the cars behind me with all the smoke coming from my car. People were backin off because not only was there smoke, but there was oil that was not being burnt, and it was all over the cars behind me......oops!!
So, to fix the problem....yup you guessed it.....I had to remove the drivers side valve cover. And, anyone that knows anything about the Mark VIII, and its motor, knows that neither one of the valve covers are easy to remove, but the drivers side is damn near impossible (without removing damn near half of the drivers side to do it). I removed the drivers side valve cover first by pulling the brake reservior and moving it out of the way, removed the spark plug covers, pulled the spark plug wires(duhhhh), removed the wiring/vacuum lines off of the valve cover, pulled the throttle/cruise control cables, and moved the brake reservior/coil pack bracket. I got the valve cover off without removing or loosening up the brake booster.
I tried like hell to get the valve cover back in without removing/loosening the brake booster, but after consultation by Geno, I had NO choice. I loosened up the nuts that hold the brake booster in place, and had my brother pull it out of the way whilst I placed the valve cover in place. I drove the car around, and although it still smokes, and it seems that I fixed my problem. I lost damn near 4 quarts of oil in only a few blocks......talk about a HUGE oil leak......lol.
All seems to be good, hopefully in a few days the residual oil all over the place to be burnt off and will have no more smoke coming from under the car.
