I recently took off the valve covers to inspect the tappet guides, which were in great shape @ 58,000 mi. Of course while they were off, I put new gaskets on. What a difficult job that was! Anyway, I put the new gaskets on and torqued the nuts down to 7-8 ft/lbs. However, now that I have driven the car a couple days, I rechecked the nuts to see if they had loosened. It appears as if they are now at about 5-6 ft/lbs. Should I re-tighten them? The covers are not leaking so I am inclined to "let a sleeping dog lie". If someone has a suggestion, I am all ears.

 

Common for them to loosen a bit. If not leaking leave well enough alone.

Did you install new washers? Just wondering.

Cheers
DD

 

No, I reused the washers. They looked to be in good shape.

 

If it is not leaking, as you said just leave them alone.

As Doug has said. It is common. A few heat cycles will do that with most fasteners. It's just with such little tq it seems more noticeable.

 

I cannot overemphasize how tough it was to get the 24 year old gaskets off. If you every decide to try this endeavor, drink lots of water and give yourself a couple hours to finish. It was like some space age adhesive was holding them in place. Not to mention one stuck to the head(intake side) and the other stuck to the valve cover(exhaust side). I used new gaskets from CW and they fit perfectly. I did nick the head surface on the intake side so I used a teeny tiny bit of permatex to fill in just in case the nick provided a leak point. Overall, I am very happy with the results....so far