Valve cover gasket replacement question that has me puzzled

[maxthebird]

Hi all. Just getting to replacing my valve cover gaskets after 125,000 miles. Leaking mostly around the camshaft plugs. Seems mostly straight forward except for the camshaft plugs. In most of the videos on this forum, the plugs are removed by taking out the 2 bolts on top and pulling the assembly up and out. My 98 has a triangular metal plate against the plug on the passenger side held in with 2 bolts, and a rear plate (strap) on the drivers side held in by a nut and a bolt. Almost no one mentions these 2 plates in their video but I did find a couple that removed them before removing the cam plugs. Is it necessary to remove them, or loosen them or can they stay put? They are hidden between the head and the firewall and tough to get at and I rather not take these plates off if I don't have to. Thanks in advance.

 

[T4R2014]

I had the same issue with no explanation to be found. I ended up taking them off. I used a Gearwrench to remove them.

 

[2TH4IST]

Pull them off, remove the cam plug cap, replace plugs, and reinstall the caps and plates.

 

[stunt2]

Removed them as well, but now I think they do nothing, except to be a failsafe against plugs to not pushed out by the pressure inside the valve cover, if such occurs. They just not hold anything else. So I think you can leave them and remove plugs

 

[John624]

I ended up leaving the passenger side triangular support in place and cleaning the surface well. Not good practice but hasn’t leaked on me thus far.

The driver side was much easier to get so I removed that bracket to clean.

If I wasnt in such a rush due to oncoming rain I would have taken the time to remove both.

 

[mtbtim]

There's no need to mess with those retaining plates at the backs of the heads. You just remove the collars to get the cam plugs out. The only occasion I could see removing them is if a previous owner or mechanic used FIPG on the plugs, causing more clean-up of the surfaces. The cam plug has a rubberized coating which makes a leak-free seal with the head and the collar, but some people put FIPG as extra insurance which isn't necessary.