leaky intake question

[xjames]

Well, I had a nice little river of coolant running down the front of my engine. I checked all the usual suspects, thermostat and waterpump, no such luck. Now, I am in the middle of replacing my intake gasket. I was reading through my Hayne's manual for torque values before reinstalling the manifold. I found the specs and sequences for the manifold to block nuts and bolts. However, I can find nothing about the plenum to manifold. I left the fuel rail intact with the manifold. There were no vaccuum or fuel leaks and I hate replacing injector O-rings. Does anyone see a problem with doing this and does anyone know the torque specs and sequence for the plenum nuts? I am hoping to get this done today because I am working outside, due to my Bronco being torn apart in the shop, and I need to get the explorer back on the road by morning. So, any advice is most truly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.

 

[boggs1227]

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0b/94/b0/0900823d800b94b0/repairInfoPages.htm


give this a try it's from autozones diy guides....
the tighting sequence is there as well as the torque specs .


funny how the guy before had problems with his heater control valve earlier...mine went out today ...fixed, but your intake is leaking in the same place mine is for the last 2 weeks.so i guess it's a good thing that you needed this info because i'll be doing it too in a couple of days .

cheers

 

[wood1]

throw in a bottle of Barr's Stop Leak too. Great stuff...

 

[xjames]

Thanks Boggs, I noticed the small puddle under my EX about 2 weeks ago and it progressed quickly to a running stream. The fast progression was probably due to my heavy foot. I found the link you provided a few minutes after I posted, but it is still a great feeling to know there are a great group of people here to help when needed. I managed to get everything back together with just a few short moments of daylight left. It was surprising just how small the crack was that caused such a fuss. The new Felpro gasket is a much improved design over the factory original. Seeing as the factory gasket lasted 17 years, I am looking forward to at least 20 years of worry free service now. Yeah right! I will probably be rebuilding my engine this fall as soon as I get my Bronco back on the road. All I have left to do is run it and check for leaks. I will be waiting til morning so that I have that big worklight in the sky to get a good look at it all. Well, once again, thank you for the assistance.

 

[xjames]

throw in a bottle of Barr's Stop Leak too. Great stuff...

Really?! The last time I tried using that stuff, wich the parts guy swore up and down was the greatest shiznit on earth, I ended up replacing the water pump, thermostat, and still had to fix the pinhole in my radiator. Hell I have had better luck with black pepper or a raw egg.

 

[wood1]

Wow, I've had great luck with it. It prevents rust, lubricates the water pump, seals small leaks...

Before I used it I could always smell antifreeze when I got out of my Explorer, could see the trail from the front of the engine, most likely lower intake manifold leaking, one bottle later all is well.

I have a very knowledgable mechanic buddy who swears by the stuff. He's been in business for 20 years, that's got to count for something in my books...

 

[boggs1227]

ahh well your welcome ,glad to be some help .after reading so many post before i finally joined ...i really learned alot so i'm glad i can repay the favor to some one .

just curiuos how long did this take you ? and was the underside condition of the lower intake look like hell ?!? i bet mine will when i took off my upper plenum off (trying to get the engine to start when i first bought it ) a gigantic piece of carbon fell out ! i swear it was half the size of a golf ball !
so i bet mine will need to soak at least a day in some gas to dissolve all of it.


barrs leak stop....never liked it ,allthe few times i've used it, it caused wild cooling problems for the vehicle so if i'm needing a emergancy stop leak soulution i think i would use pepper or a raw egg ! lol

 

[boggs1227]

hmmmm

 

[boggs1227]

i guess in some application that type of additive could be helpfull , but to fix a leak means that something is out of killter somewhere thats needs to be replaced but ...here i am today putting in risolene engine additive to help quiet my lifter tap ...in reality i would need to replace them to make sure the tap was gone ! lol .................bottom line is ,

YOU JUST CAN'T WIN ! lol

cheers

 

[xjames]

Amen to the no win situation. In all it took about 4 hours to swap the gasket. 1 hour of wich I spent cleaning gasket off the valve covers! Well after topping off the radiator with coolant there was no more stream running down the front of the block. I got in and started it up this morning and alot of white smoke was rollin out the tail pipe. I figured this was just some residue that got into the intake ports while pulling stuff off. I hopped in and took off to work. A few minutes into the trip the smoke quit. I got to the stop sign at the end of my road and had to wait a minute or two for traffic. The smoke started again. After pullin out onto the road and accelerating the smoke stopped again. A few miles into my trip I noticed the temp starting to rise. I pulled over and checked the level in the radiator and it was a little low. I figured maybe it was because of air in the engine trapped by the thermostat. I topped it off and headed on my way with more white smoke billowing out for a minute or so. The temp started rising again but would drop back down every few minutes. I got to work and it was boiling just a bit. This afternoon I got back in and the white smoke was back. Everything was the same all the way home. I think I may have blown a head gasket or worse yet cracked a head. As soon as it cools a bit I am gonna see if I have a milkshake in the crankcase. So, I know what you mean, you just can't win. All that to put on new gaskets that are just gonna have to come back off. DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. My wife explained to me that it got real hot while she was driving it the day before I got the gaskets. I asked why she didn't stop and put water in it and she said " because it was raining and she didn't figure it would hurt anything I couldn't fix". Double Dammit!!!

 

[Firestorm]

Wow. Talking about a bad day.

 

[xjames]

No, the worst part is, I am having to work on it outside and we are suppose to get 7" of snow tonight!

 

[little x]

O man, it definitely sounds like she over heated it and cracked the head(s) the day before you fixed the problem that was causing it to over heat.

that sucks
that sucks
that sucks

 

[xjames]

LOL, maybe now I should try the stop leak!

 

[boggs1227]

(shakeing my head ) oh man .......sorry to hear that . i had a girl friend years ago call me up and said that her car was low on oil and that maybe she put to much in ....i get there and she had almost fill the entire block with motor oil.i followed her home and almost like clock work ( 2-3 minutes) a hugh white cloud of smoke would billow out of the exaust almost blinding me ......idiot.

well i know that when it rains it pours...i went out to do my engine treatment and ended up doing my freaking heater control valve.luckilly it went out in the driveway while i was letting the engine warm up ,it could have went out on me down the road and pumped out all my coolant and i would be where your at now sorry to say.

good news tho....the risolne engine treatment i put in ( 1/2 quart) really did a number on the engine ,it's really a lot smoother and almost all of the lifter noise is gone .....really impressed me i figured it was like all the other **** you see out on the market but it did the ticket !

well hang in there, if i can be helpfull let me know .i dont know every thing but i may offer some advice to ya .


cheers !

 

[Tony H]

I thought they were something silly like 18 lbs.

By the way, I left my Fuel rail intact as you did. No Problem