I don’t think much of an oil drop here and there coming out of a 17 year old car with nearly 290k miles on it. But this was a bit more than just a drip. Eventually what happens is the head pressure on engines can climb a bit over the years, especially if the PCV valves aren’t occasionally replaced and then they exploit the brittle gaskets, especially valve cover gaskets. Such is the case here on our ’09 Flex… the family work horse. Not only had I ignored the PCV valve, but the valve cover gaskets were original even having had the valve covers off a couple times over the years. While this isn’t a difficult job, I never really know what I’m getting into with these since a lot of the plastic clips that hold things together are brittle and break easily. Most bits went back together smoothly with the exception of a couple of the spark plug coil clips snapped and I wasn’t confident the friction alone would hold them together. So I replaced a couple of the locking plugs. I also replaced the spark plugs since I was in the neighborhood already and of course the PCV valve for good measure.
Lots of photos… mostly for my future reference.
