So I Just bought a 1995 civic ex with the stock d16z6 and notice I had a pretty dececent valve cover leak, so I decided to take the valve cover off to see what else was going on under neath and when I went to put the cover back on I noticed that only 2 of the 4 bolts would actually thread on. One side of the bolt holes is broke off some where. Is something like this even repairable and worth doing for the $$ or should I just swap it out for another engine? It has about 205k on the engine, has a pretty good front main seal leak and will need a new timing belt and water pump.

 

shame the head looks pretty clean i would try to see if u can find another cam cap for it.

 

^ or if unable to find cam cap and If it was my only car I would compression test the cylinders if readings were still decent I would swap the head, HG,good time for new t belt,water pump, front main seal and if it were my 2nd or daily car and comp numbers not too good I would clean the area put a blob of J*weld drill and tap it for the valve cover bolts and put a new t belt and front main seal on there although this does not sound like the best solution

 

JB Weld is strong, and could work. All those bolts have to do is keep the valve cover on.

You could just run a decent bead of RTV silicone around the valve cover and hopefully the two bolts will hold it down to dry. DON"T OVER TORQUE THEM! I think its supposed to be like 7ft lbs or something, it's basically threading the bolts in by hand and just snugging them a little with the wrench.

 

Definitely going to try sourcing down a cam cap first!

A compression test is a must do! As long as the comp is good then it should be worth trying to fix/repair one way or another.

JB weld has gotten me out of a jam more than a couple of times!! Its last resort but better than nothing.