Lately I have been smelling a slight oil burning odor while driving. A neighborhood mechanic put it on the rack and tells me the valve cover is leaking. He didn’t pull the aero pans (drip pans) to see the leak. He quoted me 6.5 hours. This actually seems low due to the amount of parts that need to be removed to get access. Fuel lines, coil packs, DI injectors need to be removed etc. So my question is - has anybody replaced their valve cover seals on the 5.0l engine? If so how much were you charged and how many hours did it take? The car has 117k miles, so I will probably just buy new valve covers since they come with the required seals and other bits.

 

That is a reasonable time. The only thing ever having issues with valve covers is the fuel injectors. Had a few tooth-and-nail fights getting them out, especially higher mileage ones. Apart from that its straight forward to do.

 

Thanks Rummy for the fast reply. Yeah I have seen the videos of people trying to remove the DI injectors on high mileage 5.0l motors (same as land rovers 5.0l) Some guys gave up and called in for help, others looked like they were going to break the injectors off. There always seams to be at least 1 frozen injector out of the 8. Must be some trick to help remove them. I noticed some would spray a lubricant and let sit overnight before trying to remove them. John

 

Hi,

I have used to do so that before i remove any or dismantle everything beyond non-running engine, i try how tight they are and mark seized ones. Then i run the engine hot and usually seized injectors (or glow plugs on diesels) come out much less force, even slides out. Obiosly there are risk of some burned fingers, so cloves recomended.

 

...and what about access to the valve/camshaft covers? Truth be told, isn't it harder to just get to the cover bolts in the first place?
Looking in there, it looks really tight, so I've always wondered how the dealership (or any other) mechanics get to them.

 

If removing the injectors use the proper slide hammer tool. They are usually in there pretty tight!
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