How do you change a valve cover gasket on a 1994 Mazda 929?

Answer 1

First of all, it'll take most of the day to do. Start by taking all the attachments to the plenum on both sides of the engine. Remember where everything was attached. There is a fuel line on the rear of the plenum on the passenger side that is bolted to the plenum. Then unscrew the bolts on top of the plenum and lift the plenum up from the engine. There are two more vacuum hoses that are in the bottom rear of the plenum that needs to be disconnected before the plenum can be completely removed from the engine. They will be hard to reconnect. The main thing is to remember where all the vac hoses goes and where the wire harnesses are attached. Remember the firing order of the spark plug wires. Don't buy the gaskets from the dealer.....too expensive. Try Pep Boys or Advanced Auto. They may have to order them, but they'll be in the store the next day. You will need the complete valve cover gasket kit with the goumets for the screws, and a plenum gasket. Once you place the gaskets on and reassemble the parts, make sure you torque the valve covers and plenum bolts by the manufacturer's specifications. It's a time consuming job. I did mine in about 8 to 9 hours. You may want consider purchasing the parts and have a garage put them on for you. It's not like in the old days where it was easy to get to the valve covers. Good luck. The valve cover gasket kit was $59.00 at Pep Boys and the Plenum gasket was $6.00 at Advance Auto. Most places want over $100.00 for the valve cover gaskets. The dealer wanted $139.00 for the $6.00 gasket that I got from Advanced Auto.