Well, because O'Reilly's only had 1 rear main seal, and I am working on my only vehicle for a family of 4, I opted to wait on the rear main seal. I did replace the valve cover, and will wash off the entire engine with Automotive Simple Green, then see if all the oil was the valve cover and not the oil pan.
As far as the valve cover, all done. Thanks for the tips. No one mentioned the bolt closest to the firewall. I got it out, but putting it back was a pain. I dropped it and it was lost for about 15min. It found a cozy place back there between the engine and firewall.
Man, the stupid plastic pieces holding the fuel injector wireing line in place were my biggest problem. Them, combined with the radiator hose made for a very tight fit getting the valve cover out, and then back in.
What are the two vacuum lines coming out the top of the valve cover? They both had a lot of play in them, and were cruddy. Because I didn't know, I didn't mess with them.
Oh, and while I was wrenching, I replaced the diff fluid with synthetic. Only glitch in this plan was that the previous owner (before my Father-in-law in 2003) had used a grey liquid gasket. And used a TON of it!! I was scraping the rear for a while, and couldn't even budge the front (why couldn't the dana 30 and chrysler 8.5 have a drain plug like toyotas!?!?!). I had to use the hand pump I use for bleeding the brake lines to suck out the front diff fluid. Not as satisfying as the rear because I know I didn't get as much of the old out before putting in the synthetic, but at least I know it is sealed.
