[00mustangv6]

I have the valve cover gasket leak and my idle bounces around sometimes, and my gas mileage doesnt seem as good..would this affect it?

[theyanks904]

nope sure wont .... but pull the iac off your car and clean it its located on your throttle body probaly will take care of the problem ...and its free to try most the time thats the problem

[9986paulk]

I'm pretty sure it will affect idle...I don't remember how they are run on stock cars.
But if there is one connected to each valve cover and to the manifold for vacuum, a seal leak will definitely be a vacuum leak.

[theyanks904]

yea a vacuum leak will cause idle problems but not a oil leak

[9986paulk]

what about an oil leak? If there's oil leaking through it and the inside is subject to vacuum, it is also going to be sucking air in.

[mcqueen]

To clear this up, the inside of the valve cover is subject to vacuum (pull the PCV line off your valve cover and feel the suction). A leak in the valve cover would allow unmetered air to enter into the valve covers and get sucked into the upper intake, blah blah blah (imagine I just explained how air travels through an engine). That air didn't pass through the MAF so the air is unmeter and likely to case problems such as odd idling.

[9986paulk]

thank you ^

[theyanks904]

thanks

[Rich J]

Originally Posted by mcqueen To clear this up, the inside of the valve cover is subject to vacuum (pull the PCV line off your valve cover and feel the suction). A leak in the valve cover would allow unmetered air to enter into the valve covers and get sucked into the upper intake, blah blah blah (imagine I just explained how air travels through an engine). That air didn't pass through the MAF so the air is unmeter and likely to case problems such as odd idling.

+1, don't forget this will eventually cause you to run lean. And I could imagine if you deal with A LOT of dust in your area (I don't know just saying) it could cause a mess of problems. But it depends how big the leak is.