HOW TO: Change the Rocker Cover Gasket

Guide to replacing that leaky rocker cover gasket!

Costs about £35 altogether for parts including gasket sealant.

You will need:

Ford Rocket Cover Gasket, finis 1031031 circa £28
Gasket Sealant circa £5
4mm Allen Key
8mm socket
10mm socket
Torque wrench which adjusts to 10nm

The parts



Start by removing the 4mm Allen key fairing bolts on your engine cover, there should be 9 although im missing one.



Undo oil filler cap and remove the cover



Pull off the spark plug leads, make a mental note of the order, they are arranged in length order though should you forget



Unplug the electrical connections to the camshaft position sensor and the VCT solenoid sensor (left hand side of engine)

Undo the 8mm bolt on the bracket securing the camshaft position sensor



Withdraw the sensor (may take a bit of wiggling)



Pull off the breather hose





Remove the 4 x 10mm nuts securing the rocker cover



Withdraw the metal capped rubber grommets



Undo the 3 x 10mm bolts securing the upper portion of the cam cover





Remove your rocker cover!



Lay somewhere clean



You will need to wipe clean and remove any old bits of silicon around the edges of where the old gasket sat, pay particular attention to the areas around the pulleys.



Unclip the 4 circlips from the injector rail



Pull off injector rail



And remove the foam insert



This will give you better access to the front part of the block



Withdraw old gasket from rocker cover





Give old cover a clean, came up ok with a bit of WD40



Apply gasket sealent into the groove where the gasket sits



Push in new gasket and give time to set so parts dont pop out when you try and fit it



Apply sealent in the engine on the bits the gasket sits





Fit rocker cover back on



Fit all the bits you removed in reversal as you took them off.

Tighten all rocker cover nuts to 10nm



All back and hopefully no more leaks!

Top guide k:

I'll move it to the "How to" section, but leave a marker in "under the bonnet" for future reference.

Excellent, to get the rocker cover off though don't you have to lift one side and then pull it to the right? I seem to remember some trick to getting it off.

Great note about letting it seal on the cover first before refitting! I think it's probably better to use the Ford part for the price too (I used an after market version).

you do have to lift the right side first to wiggle it out, however if you remove the top cam cover bolts and hold the plastic shroud back it will pretty much lift straight out

Great job yet again Steve. Your becoming our resident Haynes Manual....lol

scubahaynes lol

Cracking write up and pictures steve :thumbs:.

wish I had read this before I did mine! I fitted a after market gasket brought off Ebay which didn't seem to seat well in the rocker cover, for some reason it kept pinging out of the grooves, I finally managed seat the gasket and tightend everything down with all seeming ok. I now noticed last week after a oil change its leaking again! I never used any Gasket seal could this be the problem? I just basically dropped the cover down on the head and tightend it down even.

Jasper

Great write up and pictures! Thanks!

Couple of quick question if anyone can answer...

The Ford TIS guide doesn't seem to say anything about applying gasket sealer anywhere, is it necessary? It seems a bit odd putting sealer on something that is designed to seal...

Also, is the cam / rocker cover gasket a common fault point for Pumas?

Cheers,

Dan

Yes it's common and it might not say about applying sealent and maybe for an OEM gasket it's a bit over cautious but a few of us have found the pattern parts don't tend to sit quite as nicely and can 'ping' out of place whilst you're trying to get the rocker cover back in place which is rather frustrating.

Hopefully this answers your question.

Thank you very much Red! Great site you have here btw!

:thumbs: Glad you're enjoying it! I can only take about 1/4000th of the credit though since it's mainly the members that make the site!

hello im new to this.
great guide...i have just done this on my wifes car but had to replace the sealing ring that sit between the rocker cover & the cmp sensor housing as it fell to bits.
had a right old time getting one too

Thanks steve, some bits i wouldnt of realised that needed to come off to sort it out. Namely cambelt cover and I probably would of struggled with the injector rail on lol.

I shall be doing this over the weekend.

This is Awsome, I have never don't anything more complicated then change my tyre and this was easy, only irritating part was that I didn't let the glue dry a bit before putting the rubber gasket in, and it kept popping out so I had to sit and hold it unti it set lol, leak is stopped now so I'm very happy saved me over £100. Next today is an oil change.

After seeing oil leak from exactly this place on my car, I was about to despair, but you're a ledge for posting this up Steve! That's tomorrows job sorted!

yep, thanks from me too,
Will be doing this next weekend.

Very good guide indeed - thanks Steve! Accomplished this today!

What I'd add to it is, if the 4mm Allen bolt has a rounded head then a T27 Torx bit can be tapped into it and used to undo the bolt. Oh, and that the gasket sealant bit is a messy job haha :wink:

haha, I'll second the sealant mess, especially when you put far too much in like myself...lol.

Thanks for that brilliant guid steve, done this last weekend and it was invaluble! and I will 3rd that sealant mess even after reading this it got everywhere! lol

Thanks for this guide! I didn't let the sealant cure properly before replacing the cover, so it dropped out. Oops. :roll:
Second time lucky. Had to sit it on a flat surface under a weight (my toolbox) until it was properly set. Hopefully now my spark plugs won't be swimming in oil any more!