I have a 1990 (TPI) vette. Need the valve cover gaskets and the oil pressure switch/sending unit replaced. Mechanic quoted me $1200. Seems a bit pricey. Just wanted to get some feedback and see if anyone else has had this same job done and for how much. Thanks in advance.

 

Did it myself for less than 300

 

Was it a complete pain in the *** to do?

 

Valve cover gaskets and an oil pressure switch can be under $20

Replacement is only a couple of hours (working slowly).

To me your quote is WAAAAAAAY over priced.

Do it yourself and save a lot of money and have some fun doing it.

 

Is it a total pain in the *** to do? The mechanic made it seem like it needs to be done a very specific way. I'm sure the bolts need to be tightened to torque specs but other then that it seems pretty straightforward. Just gotta move some stuff around to get the covers off.

 

I just did the valve cover gaskets on my '90 not long ago.

Whomever quoted you 1200 bucks is taking you for a ride, man.

In fact, I wouldn't even let that person touch my car, as just based on that quote tells me they've never worked on a C4 and are going by some book some place.

The only pain in the rear end part of the job is gettting the EGR crossover pipe off if those two torx bolts connecting it to the exhaust manifold (which never should have been installed there in the first place) are shot...which they probably are.

It's not a hard job and shouldn't take more than a few hours.

Heck. After doing it just one time you should be able to do it in about an hour, hour and a half thereafter, assuming you replaced those two torx bolts connecting the EGR crossover to the exhaust manifold with something with an actual head on them after doing it the first time.

 

Good to know. Yeah i'm not paying $1200. That's ridiculous. Thanks for explaining it!

 

See if you can loosen those two torx bolts connecting the EGR crossover pipe to the exhaust manifold and get back to us.

If you can loosen those, it's smooth sailing after that...

Not the two torx bolts connecting the crossover pipe to the intake manifold. I'm not talking about those. Those are easy and don't tend to get rotted out, as they aren't exposed ot such harsh heat conditions

I'm talking abut the two torx bolts connecting the crossover pipe to the exhaust manifold.



I've already replaced those torx bolts with something I can actually turn in the future without em rounding out like the rotted OEM torx bolts did, as you can see there.


After that.....

You have to slide the A/C bracket forward a little bit.

To do that...



That's just what is involved with removing the right side valve cover.

Looks like more work than it actually is.

The left side valve cover is way, way less involved.

Left side cover is a walk in the park compared to the right side.


Also...you need these new gaskets for the EGR crossover pipe for reinstallation...



They come two gaskets in a box.

Buy two boxes.

Because you'll use them on the A.I.R.system pipes if you ever mess with that.

That coolant hose to the water pump runs through that A/C bracket, btw. So you'll probably have to disconnect that too, assuming you don't have enough slack in the hose to let it the whole A/C bracket move forward an inch or two. As a note, my oil cooler and all of its plumbing, I had previously completely uninstalled, as it really, in effect, seemed to serve more as an oil warmer than an oil cooler, in my view. And I use fully synthetic oil anyway. Though I don't think that the T connector on that hose to the oil cooler will be a problem for you, if you have the oil cooler option.

Be sure to relieve fuel pressure before disconnecting those fuel lines.

Those fuel lines, btw, when you reconnect them, should have new o-rings installed on them, rated for fuel.

I forget what size those two o-rings are are, though, so maybe someone else can chime in on that. They're easy to come by.

 

The really messed up part about it is that the machanic would basically just be practicing on your car.

That quote tells me that they expect to take around 11 hours to do the job...which also tells me they've never done it on a C4 before.

I was doing other work aside from just the valve cover gaskets, but the valve cover gasket set itself for your '90 is under 20 bucks...





So, yeah, no...huh uh...better to keep that 1200 bucks in your pocket and do it yourself...and on your own time.

I'm not gonna BS you, though, there's a lot of outlying steps involved just to do something as trivial as replace valve cover gaskets...which you can see in that picture of mine that I scribbled all over

But...that's the way it is with these cars...and it really isn't all that much in hindsight...just extra steps.

But sure as heck not 1200 dollars worth of labor....unless , again, you're just charging someone to basically practice and learn working on their car.

This is your mission...should you choose to accept it.

If you wanna knock it out yourself, do the right side first.

Then we can get you started on the steps to remove the left side cover. Which, again, is a cake walk compared to the right side.

 

The oil pressure switch you can do when you have the left side valve cover off and it makes it much easier as you have more room to work.

Though when I replaced mine, I did not remove the valve cover in order to do it. But that still wasn't involved at all and didn't take very long to do. Half hour if I recall correctly. Or thereabout.

But...the first one was bad right out of the box new. Which seems to be a trend lately with parts like that, since they're pretty much all imported from overseas these days. So be mindful of that phenomenon.

What's the reason for replacing that anyway?

 

So the first mechanic believes the leak is from both valve cover gaskets AND the oil pressure switch. Spoke to a different mechanic, also very reputable, and he quoted me about $550 to do everything. Which is much more reasonable.

 

Well, if you go with the mechanic, I'd still buy those parts yourself and just take em along with you. Especially the EGR crossover pipe gaskets. Definitely wanna replace those. You pretty much have to, the old ones will be toast.

550 bucks is very fair, I think.

How do your valve covers look?

Do they need sanded and repainted?

Just as aside, you didn't say whether anyone has actually put their eyes on the car and difinitively identified the source of the leak before giving you a quote, so...

You can tell right away by looking at the switch whether it's leaking or not.

Valve covers, too, usually.

Could even be the intake manifold at the firewall side. That happens a lot, and could be confused with a valve cover gasket, oil switch leak.

Could also be the distributor gasket.

Oil pan gasket, fill tube, rear main leaks are a bit more tricky to identify.

 

valve covers are in good shape. I'll take some pictures when I get home. But this is the gasket that I need, correct?

 

Yep, that's the one. You need one on each end of the EGR crossover pipe. So two gaskets in total.

 

So the Chevy dealership gave me two different part numbers. He isn't sure which one i need. Any idea - A or B??

 

A is the one you want. Again, one on each end of the EGR crossover pipe, for a total of 2.

Although A here is described as the A.I.R. check valve pipe gaskets I'd mentioned earlier, it's the same gasket which is used for the EGR crossover pipe.

You can get em on eBay for pretty cheap.

Just type in ''Standard Ignition Egr Valve Gasket - VG85''


B is the EGR valve gasket. That's not the one you need.

 

Got it. Thanks again! Much appreciated!

 

So I actually ended up using the first mechanic under advice from several co workers that all agreed he does excellent work. Just picked it up today. Two day job. Do you all agree this is a reasonable price for labor considering everything he replaced/worked on?? just curious.