I recently purchased a 1997 Accord and oil has been leaking like crazy. I noticed a little piece of plastic hanging out of the Valve Cover. is this the Gasket????? check the pics

 

Yes theres a valve cover gasket its fairly easy to replace I did mine in about a hour on my 96. If you go to a Honda dealer you can buy a kit which will include the gaskets for the spark plug wells and the grommets and valve cover gasket. If I recall correctly its $20-$30, the aftermarket ones are supposedly harder to install and dont fit quite as well but you do save some money. You'll also need some honda bond to put on the end tabs in the diagram.

 

Thanks. I purchased the FEL-PRO VCG kit but i don't have any Honda Bond. Is there anything else the mechanic can use?

 

RTV grey

 

Replaced the valve cover gasket and seals on my 97 Accord a few years ago. Pretty easy job, just don't tighten the cover bolts down to much. The Honda manual calls for 7.2 ft lbs of torque on the bolts.

 

this is a big deal! so be cautious

 

My advise is to use a nutdriver (screwdriver with a socket), to tighten the valve cover nuts. You'll have less chance of snapping them, if you don't have a small torque wrench.