So I was having a horrible idle when the car was in drive so I changed the IAC and it got worse. I decided to take a look at the plugs before I took it to a shop and found oil on them. So I bought a new gasket set took everything off and cleaned out the spark plug chambers best I could.

(This is for a 95 Stratus 2.5L V6)

I'm still waiting for the valve cover to dry, I washed it out real good, it was covered in dirt/oil.

I'm going to be putting it back on tomorrow, but I have a question- The gasket looks like it should provide enough seal, but I bought some RTV as well.

My question is basically, should I use the RTV?

 

ONLY use rtv where there are transitions in the surface like at each end where the cam towers are in those corners a small dab is needed.

 

Thanks, I just put it back on using RTV on the corners and a little bit in the front center cuz thats where it was leaking before at high RPMs.

I don't have a torque wrench so I just did it till they were snug.

Now I am itching to see if its fixed, but I should wait another hour or two to make sure it dries completely.

I'm so not looking forward to doing the back valve cover...

 

just drove it for about 15-20mins and its running smoother than when I bought it and I didn't even do the rear valve cover!

When I was trying to diagnose the problem I googled for it and an ooooold thread on this forum came up saying the low RPM stumble in drive during open loop plus oil on the spark plugs is the gaskets and the PCV valve, and thats exactly what I did and fixed the problem.

So thanks Dodge Forum, you saved me a lot of money and you helped keep another stratus out of the scrap yard!

Anyways, I decided to mask and wet sand the valve cover after I cleaned it up, came out pretty good looking.

IMG00200 by phocusspi, on Flickr