water on top of engine

[marcoVR]

I have a VR Acclaim series 2 - I have water pooling in one of the gaps on top of the engine. It's coming from one of the bolts on the driver side. I can see the water seeping out after I drive it. I am new to this, can anyone tell if this is a common problem? What are those bolt for, can I tighten them myself, there are 3 on either side. Any help will be appreciated.

[cander24]

Would it be possible for you to post up at picture at all? From the sounds of it you have a leaking manifold (valley) gasket and this will need to be replaced. This is the gasket that forms a seal between your inlet manifold and your cylinder heads and stops engine coolant mixing with your inlet charge. It is not an uncommon problem at all and is a simple remove and replace procedure to fix.

[marcoVR]

here's a better picture, it doesn't show the bolts but if you've seen a VR engine you'll know what I'm talking about. where the 3 arrows are there are 3 bolts. The one on the driver side closest to the front is leaking water.

[davway]

have you tried tightening the bolt first?

[marcoVR]

I don't know anything about engines. I haven't tried tightening it. Is there anything I can f^#k up by tightening the bolt?

[Pub247]

not realy just dont try to tighten it too much as it may snap

[marcoVR]

I'll try tightening tonight and see how it goes. Is there a name for that bolt?

[jimbojones889]

i tightened my bolts a bit and it worked fine. it only leaked cos i flushed the system and it mustve moved a bit of crap from the gasket which mightve been sealing a small crack on the gasket. yeh just dont overtighten them and itll be fine. should be a 3/4 inch spanner or socket to tighten them

[gontix]

There a 3/4 inch bolt. The torque spec for them is 20-25Nm which is quite low. I wouldn't just go and tighten them to much as you may damage the threading.
Leaking from there indicates your inlet-manifold gasket will need replaceing (or you could try putting some radiator stop leak into your radiator, for a temporary fix). Which is a fairly large job to do. You should be keeping an eye on your coolant levels now aswell.

[cander24]

Retightening the bolts to the specified torque spec may stop the leak, but do be aware that it is likely to only be a temporary fix, and will soon leak again. IMO you would be best off replacing the gaskets. Do you have a workshop manual for a vr and a basic toolkit? With a little bit of mechanical knowledge you shouldn't find it too hard to replace yourself.

[marcoVR]

Should I replace both inlet-maniflod gaskets? Is there much risk involved with a home job?

[accentstencil]

Should I replace both inlet-maniflod gaskets? Is there much risk involved with a home job?

Seeing though you said you have no experience with engines I think it might be a bit hard for your first attempt. I'm all for people doing their own repairs but I would start with something more simple and and work my way up. If you feel you could do it, then by all means give it a go but it could end up costing you more in the long run.

[cander24]

Should I replace both inlet-maniflod gaskets? Is there much risk involved with a home job?

Yes, always replace both gaskets. You will most likely have to buy a top end gasket kit anyway and it will have both of them in it. Maybe if you're not too confident to do it yourself do you have a family member or neighbour etc that is good on the tools?

[gontix]

I did it myself for the first time over the long week end. It took me a couple of days to complete. It's not really that tricky, but a big job being easy to forget were things go. If you haven't done much on your car before, I would be rather cautious about going ahead.