dustinN

Anyone has instruction on how to replace the valve cover gasket? Thanks.

Strigoi

Disconnect the battery, remove the valve cover, remove gasket material, do opposite with new parts.

dustinN

Sounds easy, thank you. Can you show me a little more in details, I know nothing about fixing car but I really want to learn,

tw2

This is a guide to the M113 engine, not M156 but the process should be the same in general except you guys can have warped covers which they came out with a plastic replacement? Removing the old gunk is the time consuming part, this can take ages. The thread below mentions some products in the later pages to make life a lot easier from memory.
https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...ark-plugs.html

actech

its not that hard. did it for the first time about a month ago. got gaskets from dealership. I used the rtv and factory gasket. no leaks so far. its a little tricky around the fuel line/fuel rail connection and I had to disconnect the fuel line. have some towels ready as it will drian out for a minute. be careful cleaning up any old gasket material left and dont let any drop into the engine. it took me a bit to get all the old gasket material out of the valve covers. i took the time to paint my covers. there are videos on youtube you can watch. take your time and you will be fine. you will get the feel for it when you remove the valve covers. just reverse order after that.

dustinN

So I just replaced my valve cover gasket, twice. I got major leaks after I was done so I had to redo the whole process the very next day. Man, it was not an easy job.

Make sure that you have all the socket length sizes in hand before starting the job. Here are a few tips that I think it will help:
1. Remove the front bracket and the 2 clamps on each side of the valve cover that hold the spark plugs wires and then pushed to the wires underneath the valve cover to gain some access to the low bolts.
2. Apply NO sealant or just a very thin layer at the half-moon gasket. Make sure that valve covers are clean and dry. Push the gasket down in place. To much sealant will lubricate the gasket and make it hard to hold it in place. That the reason why I got the leaks after it's done the first time.

Bill99

I have started the job of replacing the valve cover gaskets and it was relatively easy. However, there are many small to medium size rubber grommets or gaskets that I can not find for sale anywhere. HELP ! Are they sold anywhere or are there standard rubber gaskets that I can use. They are about 1/4 to 1 in in diameter (I am not good at judging size however)

Bill99

I have started the job of replacing the valve cover gaskets and it was relatively easy. However, there are many small to medium size rubber grommets or gaskets that I can not find for sale anywhere. HELP ! Are they sold anywhere or are there standard rubber gaskets that I can use. They are about 1/4 to 1 in in diameter (I am not good at judging size however). Can I just put it back together without these (I think not).

dustinN

Exactly what rubber/gasket do you want to replace? Post some pictures please.

Bill99

Here are some pictures of a few gaskets / grommets that are . Many others just disintegrated.

Jake528

Those appear to be the RTV gaskets around the bolt holes on the cover and breather cover. It’s a bit tricky but I just figured thicker was safer than being thing and trying for a perfect circle. Haven’t had any leaks for the last 5k+ miles after replacing mine.

For the record, I didn’t disconnect my fuel line and had a kink in the gasket on my first try - which subsequently leaked a crazy amount from a quick drive before realizing the mistake. The second time around I threw some copper spray gasket on it to get it to stick into the valve cover and it worked well. Not sure why OP advised against anything on the gasket but I’ve has no issues with it. In the future I’ll just pull the fuel line.