Q: Cracked valve cover

Good question and I hope I can help you fix your issue. Your car may not be starting due to your valve cover being cracked. It may also not be holding enough pressure in the engine to start. However, we need to check some more things that may be causing your problem.

1. Take your spark plugs out and check to see if they are oily. If so you need to replace your spark plugs and the wells that will come with your valve cover gasket set.

2. Have you filled it with oil since it leaked out? If not, fill it before you try to start it because you don’t want to blow any gaskets.

3. Check your antifreeze, does it have oil in it? If so you have a blown head gasket.

4. If the car ran without oil you may have thrown the timing or worse may have thrown a rod, or fried the bearings.

I hate to say it but if the car was driven without oil it could be catastrophic and may need to be replaced. However, we need to get these steps taken care of first. You will need to check everything to ensure nothing was damaged.

I hope this will help and I hope you can get your car back on the road again.