FijiBill
Active Member
- Joined
- November 28, 2012
- Messages
- 62
- Reaction score
- 28
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1999 Ford Explorer
So my 1999 Ford 4.0 OHV has had a drivers side valve cover seep for a while (never made it to the ground). Plus it had a rattle at idle. And old plugs. I decided to pull the top of it off and replaced all the rocker arms, push rods, LIM, valve covers, thermostat, DIY injector clean, injector o-rings, spark plugs, wires, and ignition coil.
The good news. The exploder runs better than it ever has with more power, throttle response, better gas mileage, and the valve train is now silent, although I still have the famous 1999 wrist pin double rattle at times.
The bad news. I have an oil leak. Its only a few drips when I park (probably because a lot of it burns off on the cat) but it is slow. It can be easily seen on the outside of the M5OD bellhousing on the drivers side ONLY, as well as seeming to glisten down the exhaust pipe on the drivers side ONLY. It gathers/drips at the engine bellhousing joint but I doubt it is a rear main seal because the oil is on the outside of the bellhousing AND exhaust pipe and my clutch seems fine. The oil is of course brand new since I changed it twice (once after the job to get rid of junk/coolant and another time after running 20 minutes to get rid of the assembly lube on the rockers), so it is a very clean (and thin...) hard-to-see 5W30.
I used the Victor Reinz/Mahle gasket kit. Its a two piece and I used Ultra Grey in the LIM head/block corners and for the walls. I used Ultra Grey where the LIM/heads meet on the valve covers as well. Torqued everything with an inch pound wrench to spec. There are NO coolant leaks and NO coolant in the oil so the LIM is maybe OK. At least the four outlets are sealed.
My question. Should I take the entire upper intake off again and try to retorque all the LIM/VC bolts? Is an initial oil leak down the back of the engine common and this what folks normally need to do after some heat cycles? Or is this unusual and I should redo the valve covers and maybe even the LIM? Or should I just wait for the oil to get a bit older/thicker and hopefully it will gum the gap up? From what I understand none of these gaskets are under any pressure (I replaced the PCV valve just in case but it didn't make any difference).
FWIW the only weird thing I noticed while doing the job is that the Victor Reinz LIM gasket is thicker than the OEM, so the LIM is a bit higher at LIM/head junction instead of being a bit lower with the OEM one piece. But I would think there would be enough slop in the valve cover gasket to address this as the delta is the same just opposite--there is even some non-metal backed rubber in those areas of the valve cover gasket.
Hard to see anything back there. I did order a borescope to try to get some better looks. Oil level hasn't dropped any so I am driving it daily.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks!
The good news. The exploder runs better than it ever has with more power, throttle response, better gas mileage, and the valve train is now silent, although I still have the famous 1999 wrist pin double rattle at times.
The bad news. I have an oil leak. Its only a few drips when I park (probably because a lot of it burns off on the cat) but it is slow. It can be easily seen on the outside of the M5OD bellhousing on the drivers side ONLY, as well as seeming to glisten down the exhaust pipe on the drivers side ONLY. It gathers/drips at the engine bellhousing joint but I doubt it is a rear main seal because the oil is on the outside of the bellhousing AND exhaust pipe and my clutch seems fine. The oil is of course brand new since I changed it twice (once after the job to get rid of junk/coolant and another time after running 20 minutes to get rid of the assembly lube on the rockers), so it is a very clean (and thin...) hard-to-see 5W30.
I used the Victor Reinz/Mahle gasket kit. Its a two piece and I used Ultra Grey in the LIM head/block corners and for the walls. I used Ultra Grey where the LIM/heads meet on the valve covers as well. Torqued everything with an inch pound wrench to spec. There are NO coolant leaks and NO coolant in the oil so the LIM is maybe OK. At least the four outlets are sealed.
My question. Should I take the entire upper intake off again and try to retorque all the LIM/VC bolts? Is an initial oil leak down the back of the engine common and this what folks normally need to do after some heat cycles? Or is this unusual and I should redo the valve covers and maybe even the LIM? Or should I just wait for the oil to get a bit older/thicker and hopefully it will gum the gap up? From what I understand none of these gaskets are under any pressure (I replaced the PCV valve just in case but it didn't make any difference).
FWIW the only weird thing I noticed while doing the job is that the Victor Reinz LIM gasket is thicker than the OEM, so the LIM is a bit higher at LIM/head junction instead of being a bit lower with the OEM one piece. But I would think there would be enough slop in the valve cover gasket to address this as the delta is the same just opposite--there is even some non-metal backed rubber in those areas of the valve cover gasket.
Hard to see anything back there. I did order a borescope to try to get some better looks. Oil level hasn't dropped any so I am driving it daily.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks!