OK, was kind of dreading it, but I went out today to pull the passenger side valve cover and see if I couldn't find that leak!! The reason for my dread is the fact that in the Saleen, the engine does not sit in the center of the engine bay. It is bias to the passenger side. This means I have plenty of room for "fiddl'n" on the Driver side (access to bolts, wires, headers..... and on the Passenger side.... NONE. In fact, I had to disconnect the OEM computer and harness, Pull the battery and battery tray, and also pull back all of my aftermarket wiring and tape it up out of the way, just to be able to see the areas I need access to. Then its a bunch of rachet extensions with swivel heads.....etc.
Anyway, after pulling the valve cover, I did a quick inspection of the old gasket as well as the mating surface on the head. The cork gasket was "tacked on" with some of the TA31 all the way around (so I had a tiny bit of cleaning to do with a razor and some acetone). At the point of interest (where the front cover butts up againes the backing plate/block and the valve cover from above (Sort of a T shaped junction), I did notice that the gasket was a little more "wet" then the rest. Also upon closer inspection, I saw that the backing plate is slightly higher then the front cover. I think this might have been the issue. I think what happened was that the backing plate sticking up only a few millimeters higher that the rest of the mating surface might have let some oil out when it got hot and thin. Anyway, after a bit of careful cleaning (making sure nothing fell into the head), I took a little bit of TA31 and smoothed out the area on both sides of the "raised backing plate. my hope was that the TA31 would fill in both sides where the backing plate stood higher and thus when the valve cover gets clamped down again, it would have a more flat surface.
The on to the valve cover gaskets. I have a set of the original cork ones as well as a newer set recommended to me by Jay (forgot the name of the company at the moment). These newer gaskets are not supposed to shrink as much with repeated heat cycles. Also, they are unique as they are a composit of both cork and traditional gasket material (almost like Felpro) to ensure the gasket stayed put, I put a skim coat of TA31 (paper thin) on the valve cover and set the new gasket on. While it set, I temporarily put the bolts through the holes just to ensure that the gasket stayed in alignment as it dried. After about 15 minutes, I placed the valve cover/gasket combo back on and tightened it down..... another hour of replacing sparkplugs, harnesses, computers, etc and I am back together! I am going to wait until I have the new IAC installed before I give it another go.... so It will have a few days of drying.
As a side note, the rockers that were on the back of the lobe all seemed to be in good condition! I wanted to make sure that some had not worked their way loose (Not that I have heard anything while running). So all seemed well on the Passenger side so far. Hopefully this takes care of the oil leak (Fingers crossed!). The last issue will be the IAC issue. Hopefully a replacement unit fixes that.
A few days ago, I pulled the IAC valve (all black and sooty) and tried to clean it with break cleaner. After reinstalling it, it seemed to work perfectly at the next fire up and cold idle. Then a day of 2 after that, I tried to fire it up again, and it just stayed at 180 (wide open) in open loop and even in closed loop!
Tech said almost sure its bad and that its a super common issue..... Tons of Bad IAC's... LOL Stay Tuned~~