Thread: 3.6L TDV8 Intake / Valve Cover Gasket

So finally decided to prioritise this job over any others after pulling over at the top of Dorrigo range after pulling our caravan up, and smoke coming out from under the bonnet as all the leaked oil started to burn off as the car was hotter than usual.

So far just the au drivers side done in one day, tomorrow the other side.

I made 2 modified 1/4" 10mm sockets to help with the tricky to get to lower bolts, one i had to drill the center out to 6mm so it would fit over the bolts that have a stud coming out of them, and the other a shortened 10mm, ground down to minimum height for bolt head size to allow maximum space for swivel.


I remembered there is a 'service mode' on the bonnet to open it higher.

When finally removing the cover, I found it easiest to just remove the fuel rail first.

I used 17mm crow foot spanner to torque the fuel lines back up.

My crow foot is a bit chunkier than a standard spanner, so for the other side I will try torque the fuel connections before adding the bled off pipes, though i found adding the clips was easier with the injector not bolted down and pulled out a little.

I replaced all clips, bleed off o-rings and injector copper washers.

I could tell the gasket must have been my problem with oil leaking as when pulling the injectors out they would be covered in oil, as the well they sit in had oil pooled in it.

Didnt have to do anything about the engine mounts so far, but that might change on the other side.


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Day 2, and finished the passenger side, and almost all the other bits back on. Had quite the hold up with 2 dropped sockets and a bolt that didnt fall through, having to take all the bottom panels off and a wheel arch liner. I would recommend taking at least the main bottom plate off first before starting, as youll likely drop something and it will need a good clean anyway due to oil.

Managed to work out a way to get Injector 8 out, past the AC line without disassembling it or an engine mount (likely just a l320 thing), there is a mounting clip near the join pictured, once this 10mm nut is removed the pipes can be moved around enough to get past. Not an easy nut to get to though.

Talking about hard to get to nuts the #4 on the passenger (and equivalent on drivers side) one is a real challenge as you just cant see it so have to operate blind.

I found the best thing to do this time around is get the leak of pipes out of the way first, and put them back on last, this way not in the way for getting the injector pipes on/off and no risk of breaking them. As I had enough new clips for all and had saved all the old ones from the first side which would be fine if needed, i just flicked them all out with a think flat head with no concern to catch them, quite quick.

Then when putting back on, as the injector is installed this time around its a little tighter access, so i found an easy way to do it is click in all the pipes, then grip the clip straight leg with a long pointy nose pliers, get it lined up and started in the hole, then use your finger to press it from the bent end to hold it in place, while you let go with the pliers and now squeeze the clip in by getting the clip and injector between the jaws and squeezing.

You can see the oil on end of injector
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Operating blind on the invisible nut, note you can pull these black wire boxes out if it helps you.
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the ac clip/bracket pictured, the nut is at the bottom of it, unfortunately there is a flange on the bracket that stops getting a spanner on it from the angle pictured, but you have to get a socket on it with extension from behind the engine, where there is surprisingly quite a bit of space.
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if it helps (particularly on the lowers) you can just pop out the bolts instead of wind them all the way out, though they can be left in as are captive:
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Day 3, all back together - had to take off the other wheel arch liner to get a bonnet strut clip that fell down.

Also big tip dont take the oil tube out, it was much harder than i anticipated to find the lower half of the tube to put it back in. You cant get visual on it any where, even with the wheel arch liner off. I had to use a mirror on rod tool to see where i was going, and because it reverses everything, quite hard to line up.

Problem im having now is it wont start, just rolls over. No errors in IID tool thankfully, and looking at live values it seems the fuel rail pressure is too low. It is better (1400) than it was when i first started cranking (900kpa), but still not enough, (my records show its normally 22,000 kpa) , and i tried about 20 times (push button start) battery not happy, and back on charge. No signs of fuel leaking, maybe just air in system ?

Ok, got it to start, just bled from the LP shraeder valve, there was some air. Thought it wouldnt be affected due to lp not being opened...

Time to fire up the pressure sprayer.

Hi guys,
Job done for me. Thanks for the writeup. I had to follow the steps and it went very smooth.

Mine is not leaking now which is a relief that it worked! No drops of oil on the cement. I did have to nip up the nuts on one of the injectors as there was a small weep that kept coming back from that one even after washing. I think I can happily put all the covers back on

Ive been also meaning to say that id consider the following tools esseintal:

1/4" socket set
1/4" extension bar set
1/4" universal joint
1/4" torque wrench
magnetic pickup tool

Hi, great thread helping me with the same issue.
I've managed to get my metal shield off RH side without taking plenum off 1st.
I retorqued everything to 10Nm but still going into limp mode and ****ing out oil.

Is it strictly necessary I remove plenum air intake thing at top? Was only going to do side I'm leaking from. I have new Chinese rocker cover and gasket.

It's a 2009 L320 btw. So I believe there's room to remove injectors without jacking engine up.
Thanks.

yeah you can get the shield off and pipes / injectors, but i think you'll find you cant get the cam cover off without removing plenum, it seems scary, but its pretty easy.

Originally Posted by haydent

yeah you can get the shield off and pipes / injectors, but i think you'll find you cant get the cam cover off without removing plenum, it seems scary, but its pretty easy.

You're exactly right.
I've got plenum off ok now. There's a couple of cables going deep down to the front of engine somewhere which I was able to work around. Turbo actuator cables?

No problem taking driver side injectors out. On passenger side I've got the AC line and coolant hoses and heater matrix hoses going to little diesel heater thing to work around.

The gasket seems a bit weak where it meets actual rocker cover. I think I'm going to put a small amount of high temp sealant there, but not on cylinder head surface. Thoughts on this?