I put in a new quart of oil today to compensate for burned oil. After that i went for a drive and when I got back home I looked at the engine and noticed that oil had leaked out on my valve cover from the bolt second from the front. I checked the other bolts on both valve covers and found no other oil but this one had fresh oil and the remains of previous oil on it. How would I take care of this to stop the leak? This may be an easy fix but I've never take off the valve covers and don't really want to do going something that would end up putting gunk into the oil and possibly screwing up the valves...

 

just take out the screw and whip it off and try to clean the hole it goes into, and thorw some RTV of the threads and tighten it down to specs, why your at it check the rest....

 

and if there center bolt style is a washer missing? on the top

 

What do you mean by center colt style? I didn't see a washer in it or the others but i'll double check.

 

the bolts.... go thorw the covers

 

There really shouldnt be much, if any leakage from the screws unless the return passages are blocked in the heads, or the support has broken away from the cover and allowed oil to splash on the underside of the bolt. I dont have any sealant or copper washers on my cheap mr gasket VC bolts and theres also some wire looms bolted to the covers and Ive never had any leaks thus far.

Check to make sure the passages at the rear of the heads are clear and if they look ok and the VCs are ok then just use some new soft copper washers.