Hi, I have an 03 Neon that has a few problems. When I was looking into a misfire I noticed that 3 of my spark plugs had oil leaking from on top onto them.
I bought a valve cover gasket kit that came with the spark plug tube gaskets and have everything taken apart, only to find out that I can’t get the old gaskets out of the valve cover. I’ve looked around an a lot of people have suggestions of how to pry / bang them out, but nothing’s worked so far. I’ve tried gasket remover solvent but it didn’t seem to do anything.
I can’t just put it back on and run with it as one of the gaskets broke as I tried to pull it. I can grab the metal ring inside it with pliers but even directly pulling on it can’t get it to budge.
Am I going to be stuck buying a new valve cover? Or does anyone know how to get these things out?
They can’t be “banged” or “pryed” out. They must be scraped. You can pick up a handy gasket scraper at the nearest auto parts store or use a sharpened paint scraper.
'‘Fused to valve cover’'
Might in fact be the way they were made. Not sure about the neon but I’ve seen many molded-in gaskets where the OE replacement is to buy the whole valve cover.
The aftermarket gasket will work when you use a blade to cut the old gasket flat with the facing edge of the cover.
If it takes an hour of scraping (and a big vise to hold the cover that you do not have) it just may work out better to buy the new valve cover. For me, valve covers leaks are one I can put up with for quite a while before I decide to do something. The reason is stuff like this.
I’m assuming this is a stamp-steel valve cover and NOT cast.
Get a gasket scraper…It’ll take time, but it works fine…
When done scraping…I usually get some medium grade sand paper and sand the valve cover.
I also will go around to each of the bolt holes and hammer them smooth. Sometimes they’ll depress when you tighten a bolt down.
And don’t forget to scrape any gasket material off the heads.
Two words: heat gun.
Most things that appear impervious to all methods will yield when softened up with a heat gun. Seems like most manfrs are using adhesive to make assembly easier and limit leaks during the critical warranty period 
I’ll try this first, the auto store didn’t mention this when I asked how to remove them but maybe they just didn’t think of it. Are they easy to use w/o damaging the surrounding valve cover (plastic)?
Gasket might be a bad term, these are maybe a 1/4" thick and have a reinforcing metal ring built into it (which is likely what’s keeping the pressure so tight on it). I have seen photos where someone removed them so I know they come out. Unfortunately these are recessed into the valve cover and are pretty much level with it so I can’t just overlay a new one on top of the old.
Is this what it looks like? Made out of plastic?
Yeah, I thought this would be a quick hour or so project, but when I broke one of the gaskets I figured I really had to replace them. If I could get a new valve cover for < $150 I’d definitely do it, this is such a huge pain.
Yep that’s the one, some sort of hard plastic. I’m worried about scratching it if I get too aggressive pulling the gaskets.
Any idea what temp I should try? It’s a plastic valve cover so I don’t know how hot I could go w/o damaging it…
You’re right to be careful. Steel valve cover on a cast iron head? Go at it with a gasket scraper, you won’t hurt anything. But plastic cover and aluminum heads are another matter!
What would you recommend for a plastic cover? Seems like it would be pretty easy to ding it up
So, I replaced the gaskets (easy once I figured out what I could cut of, where to pry with needlenose pliers, and how much I had to get off before the whole thing would come off) and put the valve cover back on. I used my torque wrench set to 105 lb/in as stated in the Haynes repair manual… and one of the bolts broke, and the bump to the cover broke others (or perhaps the torque wrench broke them and I didn’t realize at the time)!!!
Oh no oh no oh no…