The gaskets for the throttle body came in Thursday so that night, after work, I put the throttle body back together. It turned out pretty nice....
I worked on the car all weekend. I took Friday off to work on it. I went over to the storage Friday morning planning to pull the valve covers for new gaskets and then to start going back together. I was probably going to do the plugs and wires after the valve cover gaskets and then start putting the front of the engine back together. This happened instead....
There is oil on the starter, the torque converter inspection cover and the transmission pan. This has been bothering me. I spent a lot of time Friday morning with a mirror and light looking for the source of the leak. I concluded that the valve cover gaskets were not leaking but that there was an oil leak at the back of the intake. You can't really see it in the picture above but when I pulled the intake, you could clearly see oil under the RTV on the top of the rear lifter valley wall. There was also a lot of crud on the back of the intake and on the bellhousing. I may still have problems after this repair but I want to eliminate this source and then take it from there. It took me pretty much the whole day to get it torn down. I took the intake home with me for cleaning. Some really good news is how clean the lifter valley is. There is no sludge. The engine has been maintained.
Saturday morning I went to the storage to pull the valve covers and to clean all the sealing surfaces for them and the intake. After getting the covers off, I'm certain they weren't leaking but I wanted to clean them up and I might as well give them new gaskets while I'm here. Admittedly though, there was nothing wrong with the gaskets on them. I got that done by the early afternoon. Here's a shot....
There is no sludge build up in the heads either. The engine is really clean internally. At that point I took the valve covers and the steam pipe home with the plan of getting started on cleaning parts. I went to Dad's to borrow his set of engine cleaning brushes and went to Home Depot and picked up a cheap tote to clean the intake in. I cleaned the outside of the intake with Simple Green and small wire brushes. By around 6 that night I was done with the outside and it was looking much better. I still wanted to do something for the inside and for the valley though. I ended up rinsing off the manifold and rinsing out the tote. I put the manifold back in and submerged it in about 10 gallons of hot water and a generous amount of regular dish washing soap and let it soak overnight. The next morning I gave the intake a second effort concentrating on the valley and going after the runners and inside the plenum with the engine cleaning brushes. It isn't spotless but I'm happy with it. I also gave the valve covers a quick clean. They were easy and the finish on them is nice enough that I'm not going to paint them....
That got me to late Sunday afternoon and that's where I stopped. The plan for next Saturday is to reset the intake on the engine and get the valve covers back on it. Then start going back together. Before I get too far I'm going to do the three seals on the front of the engine, install the Optispark and do the plugs and wires. That way, hopefully the plugs and wires will be easier to do before I put a lot of the parts back on the car.
That's it for now friends. I have a little homework to do this week to be prepared to reset the intake. I've seen some recommendations to use a stud in the front and rear bolt hole on one bank of the engine to guide the manifold down straight. I'm going to look into that. There are plenty of parts to clean as well. Hopefully I have another good update next Monday. Until then, thanks for following along and take care!
Best,
Jared
I worked on the car all weekend. I took Friday off to work on it. I went over to the storage Friday morning planning to pull the valve covers for new gaskets and then to start going back together. I was probably going to do the plugs and wires after the valve cover gaskets and then start putting the front of the engine back together. This happened instead....
There is oil on the starter, the torque converter inspection cover and the transmission pan. This has been bothering me. I spent a lot of time Friday morning with a mirror and light looking for the source of the leak. I concluded that the valve cover gaskets were not leaking but that there was an oil leak at the back of the intake. You can't really see it in the picture above but when I pulled the intake, you could clearly see oil under the RTV on the top of the rear lifter valley wall. There was also a lot of crud on the back of the intake and on the bellhousing. I may still have problems after this repair but I want to eliminate this source and then take it from there. It took me pretty much the whole day to get it torn down. I took the intake home with me for cleaning. Some really good news is how clean the lifter valley is. There is no sludge. The engine has been maintained.
Saturday morning I went to the storage to pull the valve covers and to clean all the sealing surfaces for them and the intake. After getting the covers off, I'm certain they weren't leaking but I wanted to clean them up and I might as well give them new gaskets while I'm here. Admittedly though, there was nothing wrong with the gaskets on them. I got that done by the early afternoon. Here's a shot....
There is no sludge build up in the heads either. The engine is really clean internally. At that point I took the valve covers and the steam pipe home with the plan of getting started on cleaning parts. I went to Dad's to borrow his set of engine cleaning brushes and went to Home Depot and picked up a cheap tote to clean the intake in. I cleaned the outside of the intake with Simple Green and small wire brushes. By around 6 that night I was done with the outside and it was looking much better. I still wanted to do something for the inside and for the valley though. I ended up rinsing off the manifold and rinsing out the tote. I put the manifold back in and submerged it in about 10 gallons of hot water and a generous amount of regular dish washing soap and let it soak overnight. The next morning I gave the intake a second effort concentrating on the valley and going after the runners and inside the plenum with the engine cleaning brushes. It isn't spotless but I'm happy with it. I also gave the valve covers a quick clean. They were easy and the finish on them is nice enough that I'm not going to paint them....
That got me to late Sunday afternoon and that's where I stopped. The plan for next Saturday is to reset the intake on the engine and get the valve covers back on it. Then start going back together. Before I get too far I'm going to do the three seals on the front of the engine, install the Optispark and do the plugs and wires. That way, hopefully the plugs and wires will be easier to do before I put a lot of the parts back on the car.
That's it for now friends. I have a little homework to do this week to be prepared to reset the intake. I've seen some recommendations to use a stud in the front and rear bolt hole on one bank of the engine to guide the manifold down straight. I'm going to look into that. There are plenty of parts to clean as well. Hopefully I have another good update next Monday. Until then, thanks for following along and take care!
Best,
Jared
