1996 3.8L Front and Rear Valve Cover Gaskets

[wiswind]

Today, I replaced the front and rear valve cover gaskets.
I took pictures and posted them in my windstar pictures.
The first in the series is here.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2110...Id?vhost=rides

I had to remove the windshield cowel to access the rear valve cover......so I have included pictures that show that as well.

I needed to remove the upper intake manifold as well.....but only removed the Air cleaner & hose to the throttle body...........left the throttle body in place (on the upper intake manifold) and removed the 12 bolts that hold the upper intake manifold down to the lower intake manifold.
Then, I unpluged 1 vaccum line from the rear on the passenger side....and was able to move the upper intake manifold forward enought to access the rear valve cover.

At this time, I cleaned my EGR ports.
I re-used the upper intake manifold gaskets, but I cleaned the seating surface with a cloth soaked with Berryman's B-12 Chemtool.
Then I placed shop towels over the lower intake manifold.....and placed shop towels over the top of the upper intake manifold.....held up the upper intake manifold slightly....and sprayed the underside of the upper intake manifold with the spray version of Berryman's B-12 Chemtool, to remove the oil crud from around the upper intake manifold gaskets, etc.

The front valve cover gasket is easy.....rear is a bit of work to get to......and VERY easy to get something, wire, vaccum line, etc pinched in there when you re-install the rear valve cover.

My valve cover gaskets were leaking quite a bit......they were factory originals.......at over 220K miles.....so it was time.

[onit]

When i was doing the lower intake manifold gasket i decided then to change the valve cover gaskets as well since i had it apart. I also did the plugs, wires and replaced both grommets on the valve covers where the pvc and the vacum line goes into them. Those plates inside the valve covers i removed the 4 little bolts and took out the plates and cleaned them as well as the valve covers. When i removed the plates there was a lot of oily residue. I figured that since i had it out to spend the extra time to get everything really clean.