Valve Cover Installation Gone Wrong (Updated 2/26/11)

[tougeagle]

I recently bought my new valve cover, and had my buddies shop put it on for me.  Mainly because I didn't want to mess around with drilling holes and making a mess of my engine and not knowing if I could get it back together.  Well, this plan didn't go so well.  

I went to go pick up the car in high spirits, hoping the car would look good under the hood and my oil leaks would be cured.  I walked in the door and my friend says, "Yea, we had a bit of problems with your Eagle." "We put the cover on and about 5 minutes later after starting it up, there was a bunch of smoke pouring out of the engine."  ...I thought he was just joking with me, as he always gives me crap about my Eagle.  But he wasn't, with the new aluminum valve cover, some wires on the back side we're bare and then because it was aluminum now instead of plastic, it conducted electricity...  He said they repaired the wires and wrapped them real good, and said that he noticed no electrical components were harmed.  Well I said good, and got the keys and walked out to my car.  >>>But, it wasn't good... I started it up and noticed things weren't right...

>>>My tachometer doesn't work, which I just put on like a week ago
>>>Temperature gauge doesn't work
>>>Car doesn't idle right, like a misfire
>>>Still leaking oil, still from the valve cover by the Carb
>>>And, later I found out that when drilling the holes for my valve cover, he drilled to deep and drilled into my water jackets in my head

I am leaking anti freeze, slowly but surely, out of the side of my valve cover.  Is this a serious thing? Is my head going to be ok? Can I just have them put a bunch of gasket sealer in there?  Or is my whole head shot now???

Why does it seem that everytime I try to fix something, something else ends up breaking and makes it worse than what it originally was?  Basically, I'm not a happy camper.  It's running like absolute crap, some electrical things don't work right, and I just spent a lot of money on a car that can't even be driven now.  It's also snowing outside now, and I don't even have an Eagle to have fun out there with...  

No offense, but your buddy's shop is a bunch of hacks. that's a pretty simple job to have go so very wrong.....You can get your water jackets sealed up by stuffing some water soluable peanut pieces down into the holes with a pen or pick, and using a small amount of jb weld, enough to fill at least 1/8 inch. Wait several hours, but not until it cures fully, and install bolts to create a seal around the bolt (it shouldn't bond to the bolt, but will make the threads tight to the bolt). You should probably make sure there is no antifreeze in your oil as well.

ALso, valve timing is different from ignition timing. Valves will open at the set rate no matter where your dizzy is. Combustion itself is a different story. The only way to change valve timing is to remove the timing cover and skip the chain over a tooth or something. I would shy away from messing with any settings, and just go through the car and fix what they screwed up.

And never, ever go there again. For any reason.

[amc78concord]

Update: 2/26/2011.  

I brought my car back to them, and gave my friends an ear-full.  Frankly, there is no other repair place in my town where I'd take my car.  I have a lot of faith in that shop, and they do know what they're doing.  This was just an unfortunate happening, my first with them since both me and my dad have been going there (a long time).  But anyways, they agreed to fix their mistakes, for free.  They plugged up the hole which was drilled to deep and fixed the valve cover gasket which didn't lay right near the carb.  

I picked it up yesterday, and started it up...It sounded good, a little uneven at idle, but that's how it was before I had the valve cover put on.  I didn't have much time to look into it further, I had to get going to work.  So I drove the car to work at 4 pm.  I got off at 10 pm, and started to drive home.  I came to a red light, and when it turned green I gave it quite a bit of gas...in which killed it...  I restarted it, gave it more gas again and it really died down and almost stalled again.  So now, it's getting to much gas, so I assume the timing is still off.  Also, my windows were fogging up terribly, so I turned on my defrost.  It didn't do anything, and all I could smell is anti-freeze.  And sure enough, there it is all over the carpeting of my Eagle...Heater core must've taken a crap.

I don't think they had anything to do with the breaking of the heater core...but seriously... how much more time and money is this car going to take from me??

[wagoneerhauler]

As you get more done and repaired the frequency of needed work should lessen.  I does seem like i won't sometimes though.  The quitting when you step on it might not be too much gas but probably not enough.  You might want to check the accelerator pump to make sure its working correctly and giving the shot it supposed to when you step on it like you did.  Also, there seems to be a vacuum leak since it has a miss at idle so that may be the stalling issue too.  Glad they fixed the issues they caused too.

[68AMXGOPAC]

It will probably take up alot of time and all your money , as the second owner of the Money Pit , I can attest to that. I got the tranny back in it and running and now the heater blower motor on the Caddy went 2 days later , how about $266 + tx. for one of those !!I can feel you pain , plain and simple.

[thereverendbill]

It will probably take up alot of time and all your money , as the second owner of the Money Pit , I can attest to that. I got the tranny back in it and running and now the heater blower motor on the Caddy went 2 days later , how about $266 + tx. for one of those !!I can feel you pain , plain and simple.

I was wondering about the SX/4, glad you got it all together.  now to throw money at other areas of the car

[68AMXGOPAC]

Yes, especially since running the SX/4 2 or 3 times now, the tranny works great, but now I have white residue in the oil dipstick........and mixed into the blowby in the air cleaner............I really don't remember it an issue before, and I know the tranny has no relationship to it, just more of the luck that we have.

[68AMXGOPAC]

On a good note, I did dig the wagon out of the snow today and got it running and out of it's snowbank hole.It needed some gas dumped in the carb to prime it, and a battery charge. ( no power steering pump, means no altenator belt ) a large zip tie (3' long ,lol ) acts as the water pump belt for now to move it and keep it cooling,those fat street tires are worthless in the snow though, but it is resting in a new place now.
I may just switch priority gears and get the 401 finished up to run in the AMX this year.Snow is allmost over right?? LOL