Valve cover gasket replacement

[RyanG]

I brought my 98 C280 to the shop to have my brakes checked and my mechanic pointed out that oil was slowly leaking from the valve cover and suggested that I replace the valve cover gaskets. He's asking for $350 but I wanted to see just how difficult of a job this would be if I were to do it on my own. Have any of you guys done this yourselves, and if so, what exactly will I be getting myself into if I go ahead and do this on my own?

[vaspen]

if you trust his work best to have him do it but take notice on the cleanliness of his shop work area
firstly a clean mechanic is the only kind of mechanic worthy to touch the inside of a motor
reason being is he will have to pull off the valve cover obviously but if dirt gets on there your motor will knock if dirt gets in there
its a job that requires cleanliness patience and clean work area and besides while there off you can have the cover painted lol
hope this helps on what kind of issues could arise if you did it yourself unless your confident of your skills as a mechanic I wouldn't do it yourself

[RyanG]

if you trust his work best to have him do it but take notice on the cleanliness of his shop work area
firstly a clean mechanic is the only kind of mechanic worthy to touch the inside of a motor
reason being is he will have to pull off the valve cover obviously but if dirt gets on there your motor will knock if dirt gets in there
its a job that requires cleanliness patience and clean work area and besides while there off you can have the cover painted lol
hope this helps on what kind of issues could arise if you did it yourself unless your confident of your skills as a mechanic I wouldn't do it yourself

Thanks for the tip. I've never really tinkered with this car other than doing oil changes, but I'd like to think that I have enough common sense to not screw anything up. Either way I ended up buying a service manual so that I will have some direction, and so I can use it for future reference for any other problems that might come up.

[vaspen]

just be carefull n good luck