It's running again, but a few problems now - high idle, leaky gasket

[DoinkMobb]

I did a half *** under the plenum job recently and got the car up and running again. I changed all the sparkplugs, as many hoses as I could reach or felt like doing, driver's side valve cover gasket, cleaned the TB, AAC, EGR...I think that's it. I didn't do the knock sensors or the driver's side valve cover gasket.*

I cranked the car over and it slowly roared to life. Awesome, at least it started. The idle seems unusually high, about 1500 rpm or so in park. Do my throttle cables need to be properly adjusted or what? It's not a huge problem, but it's kinda annoying to take your foot off the gas and the car lurches forward.

And apparently I did a pretty bad job on the valve cover gasket. It seems that both little half moons on the back of the valver cover (towards the firewall) became dislodged in the struggle of repositioning the cover. I hoped it was just old oil burning off but there's fresh stuff dripping on the exhaust. It's pretty bad, much worse than the old gasket that was on there.

So my half *** solution was to goop a ton of gray RTV all along the back of the valve cover. Will it work? I really doubt it. Am I going to remove the valve cover, reposition the gasket and put it back together? Not a chance.

My car doesn't feel any smoother or more responsive, I may or may not have fixed my coolant leak, my oil leak is much worse than it was, my idle is too high, I spent a LOT of money and my garage is a disaster area.

Oh well, live and learn. At least I tried.

*Listen, I know I could've done the knock sensors and passenger VC gasket and then the car would've been good for another 100K miles, but there's no way I'm keeping this car that long. It's a cool car and all, but it's not god's chariot. It's just a used car to get me around for a while.

[oldmako]

Bummer!

I believe that the amazing sealing and elastic qualities of RTV will stanch the flow of oil just fine as long as the ignition key remains in your pocket and not in the switch. When you fire that mother up the Exxon Valdez syndrome will kick in. Al Gore himself ('hisself' for you Queens New Yorkers and English challenged types) will come to your house and chastise you for not only driving a V8, but for burning / leaking the lubricant in that mother as well.

How long does the idle remain high? While it's initially 'posed to be fast, it ought to settle down as the coolant warms up. The idiot (not really a tach-tach) ought to indicate 650ish as the leaking coolant warms up and comes off the peg. One advantage to increased coolant temp is that the oil will flow easier. Except in your case it will flow out easier.

I am sorry to hear your bad news Doink. Thanks for posting, for when I venture south of the plenum, I'll remember your travails and will work with due diligence. In the meantime, it's happy hour at my house....come on over.

Sorry to hear it's not healthy!!

[qship96]

That is EXACTLY why I did not attempt plenum job nor valve cover reseal myself- It was worth the drive and $$ to let T3 do it, and for me not to have to worry about it for the next 100,000 miles or so {had them replace functioning waterpump/thermo/pullys/belts/o2 sensors at same time to get it all out of the way}

I figure the only things left to replace eventually on the engine are the alternator and starter- maybe they will last till I replace the Q ?

[bullittandy]

You know why Tech and Maxnix haven't responded to this thread? Their both dead-they had massive strokes as a result of reading this post. All that repeated labor, Q abuse, wasted time, inexperience.......

Thanks alot DoinkMobb (murderer).

[DoinkMobb]

You know why Tech and Maxnix haven't responded to this thread? Their both dead-they had massive strokes as a result of reading this post. All that repeated labor, Q abuse, wasted time, inexperience.......

Thanks alot DoinkMobb (murderer).

Yeah I know. I destroyed a priceless work of art apparently.

Master mechanic I am not, but I'm always willing to try, learn and fail. And I seem to learn better by doing it myself, screwing up and then redoing it the correct way. Learn from my mistakes!!!

Oh well...

[maxnix]

Lots of great posts on how to do this job properly.

All else is urinating upwind. The results are inevitable and the results reflect the effort.

Having to pull the plenum on my VH41DE because I didn't do the VC covers at the same time. Dumb me. What's interesting is how soiled the plenum and TB is again after less than 20K. It will get the full bath this time.

[SUB ZERO CAR FANATIC]

I have never laughed so hard in my life from reading apost on Nico. I think i pissed my pants That poor old Q WAS PROBABLYsaying " DAMN BYCICLE MECHANICS"!! Thanks for the laughi needed a good eye cleansing from tears!! Not poking fun,just never laughed so hard in my life.

Did you at least close the hood and move it to a parking spotin tall grass so all the leaks dont show, and put a newwolf car cover on her, they look nice. So she has a nice funeral!! Have a great day my friend, hope you have better luck inthe future. Thanks for the laugh!! SUBZEROPS, Just out of curiosity, what happen to your Subaru Impreza?,shows you have one in your signature but its dead.Did it by chance need new valve covers too!! take it easy my friend

[qship96]

Yeah I know. I destroyed a priceless work of art apparently.

Master mechanic I am not, but I'm always willing to try, learn and fail. And I seem to learn better by doing it myself, screwing up and then redoing it the correct way. Learn from my mistakes!!!

Oh well...

Please dont take up skydiving as a hobby!!!