I have a few questions:

• Where can I buy a valve cover and/or valve cover gasket for my X-type?
• How can I find out if it is the driver side valve cover or the passenger side valve cover which is leaking oil?
• Is it better to replace the whole valve cover, or just the gasket?
• Does anyone have a diagram of where the valve covers are in the X-type? I know it's located under the engine, but I shined my flashlight through there and I couldn't find either valve cover.

Thanks in advance!

 

ragekage, if you go to your local auto parts place, ask for the valve cover gaskets from the same year LIncoln LS 3.0L motor. That will get you the part you need. No need to replace the metal cover unless it has been damaged or is warped (place on flat surface and if you are seeing more than say 1/8" gap at any point its warped).

As for "driver's side" vs "passenger side" on our motors, the side facing the radiator is the "driver's side" and the side facing the firewall is the "passenger side".

You can see the end of the valve cover if you open the hood of your car and stand by the passenger tire. If you look down by the intake, you will see some silver/metal caps on the top of the engine. Those are the ends of the valve covers. If you pull the air box out, you will see the valve cover right there for you to play with. The back side is a bit more involved as you have to remove the intake to get access. But, with the intake out of the way, it is right there too.

 

That's great! Doesn't sound like it'd be too hard to replace it. But what about cleaning the valves? I'm sure there's a plethora of oil buildup in there. What's the best way to clean it?

 

ragekage, while some will question how effective this is, without pulling the heads off of the car, there isn't much more that I can think of that you can do. What I am suggesting is using some Seafoam to pull into the intake (small vacuum line from the intake to the Seafoam can). What you do is the pinch off the temporary hose and start the car. With the motor up at temp, you release the pinch point and let the motor suck in about half the can of Seafoam. The motor is going to want to stall out. Keep feeding it more gas to keep it running, but letting it die as you get to half a can. At this point, let the motor sit for about 5-10 minutes. Pinch the tube back off during this time. After the 5-10 minutes has passed, restart the engine, unpinch the tubing, suck in the other half of the can and then restore the engine back to normal. It will smoke to beat the band, so, you may want to do this away from other buildings and whatnot.