Hey everyone, so i've decided to pull my plenum to change my injectors and valve cover. my question is should i get a normal valve cover gasket or OEM?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-97-Infiniti- ... 4c&vxp=mtr

also what type of gasket do i need for the cover on the far left and right of the valve covers?

would i need to change the intake gasket too? and also should i get OEM injectors or aftermarket?

I do OEM for everything. As far as exhaust gaskets, those are silicone. Intake gaskets are the only ones that have an actual gasket.

The OEM gaskets aren't very expensive. $30 for both.

I bought Fel-Pro ones but that's just because happened to be buying other stuff at the time from RockAuto.

OEM is a good way to go, but aftermarket for valve cover gaskets isn't a problem as long as you get a decent brand. Don't get some ebay junk because it probably won't fit right and will crap out quickly

i just did all mine a few weeks ago. permatex grey silicone for the exhaust covers and the rubber gaskets for the intake covers and need a little dab in corners where it goes over the front hump. take your time and go slow...label everything with masking tape. id reccomend getting all new rubber hoses for the pcv and IAC and cleaning up and hardened or leaky vacumm lines you find. cost me 800 for everything you could want to do with a plenum pull except doing injectors because my original old style injectors are still good.

How many CC are the stock NA injectors?

270cc

how tight should i tighten the valve cover bolts? should it be just snug or do i have to give it a little muscle? should i use RTV silicon on the valve cover or not? what type of silicon is best for the exhaust gasket?

Valve cover screws should just be snug, I think the fsm says like 2.1 ft-lbs or something. For the intake valve covers, you only need to put silicone in the corners where the vtc solenoid and cam seal are. For the exhausts, silicone RTV all the way around. I used the Gray but for most things I used copper. It comes with gray from the factory.

what is this stringy lines for? how would i install it?



What is the purpose of deleting your water line? if possible does anyone have a write up for it? thank you.

and also would a need any silicon for the intake gasket? or would a gasket can works fine with it? or non at all? would we be the best approach?

I think some companies offer those ask exhaust valve cover gaskets, mine came with them too but I didn't use them for anything.

The purpose of deleting the water lines is to:

1) make plenum pulls MUCH easier/faster
2) reduce the amount of hoses that can leak

This will explain it better: http://z32.wikispaces.com/Coolant+Line+Bypass

You don't necessarily need silicone on the intake gasket, but personally I put some on either end where the flat part meets the bump

is this the right silicon sealant for the exhaust cover?



also what are these gaskets call? should i replace them?

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/292/egrwhat.jpg

Those are EGR tubes. And they are gross. You can if you want. Personally, I'm deleting the system.

EDIT: Just saw you're in CA. That sucks. However, most shops won't even know where to look for our EGR. It is, however, illegal for you to delete.

RisinTiger wrote:is this the right silicon sealant for the exhaust cover?



also what are these gaskets call? should i replace them?

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/292/egrwhat.jpg

You want the grey sealant, not red. As shown in the OEM Kit here: http://www.conceptzperformance.com/Cart ... 164.64.142 . Or the the CZP kit here: http://www.conceptzperformance.com/Cart ... 164.64.142 . Personally the OEM price vs others makes it worth it to just go OEM to me. Also, you're going to need the other parts in that kit. I'm in the middle of a plenum pull right now with my valve covers off (and just repainted the intake covers glossy black, woot!)...but trust me, this isn't something you want to be doing more than once. Spend the money, do it right, avoid headaches later.

Also, I'm in Texas with inspections and deleting my EGR. Last year (my first inspection) I took it to Jiffy Lube and those guys had zero clue what was going on (which is why I took it there), so I doubt they'll notice them missing next year. Before anyone freaks out, I only took it to Jiffy Lube for the inspection, and kept a close eye on them.

Where can i get this hose from? I've search pepboys/napa/car quest etc... and was unable to get this oddly shape hose. One of the side is smaller and on the other side is wider.






MAN, the fuel injector are so stiff and hard to get out (old style injectors). Once i yanked them out, its even harder to press them down! And i also notice that the bottom of each injector there is carbon build up on the plastic pieces. so i just install the half moon metal clip on top of it (with the old washer) and slowly screw it down on both side. Am i doing this correctly? Should it be this painful to install it back on? I mean this car probably never had its fuel injector change ever since it rolled out of the factory.

Z1motorsports sells those hoses preformed, either in stock rubber or in silicone for a little more (they won't get hard).

The injectors are always a PITA to get out and usually end up breaking before coming out. When putting them back in, use plenty of lube on the o-rings like Vaseline. I had to do mine the same way by lubing up the o-rings, putting the injector in as far as I could get it and then SLOWLY tightening down both sides a little at a time. If it feels like it's hard for any reason then back it out, lube it up again and try again. I replaced all 6 injectors and ended up with 2 pinched o-rings because I didn't lube them up enough.

RisinTiger wrote:Where can i get this hose from? I've search pepboys/napa/car quest etc... and was unable to get this oddly shape hose. One of the side is smaller and on the other side is wider.






MAN, the fuel injector are so stiff and hard to get out (old style injectors). Once i yanked them out, its even harder to press them down! And i also notice that the bottom of each injector there is carbon build up on the plastic pieces. so i just install the half moon metal clip on top of it (with the old washer) and slowly screw it down on both side. Am i doing this correctly? Should it be this painful to install it back on? I mean this car probably never had its fuel injector change ever since it rolled out of the factory.

That looks like your drivers side rear PCV hose. It should be like $15 from CZP. I literally just got through putting my injectors back in. I was able to get 3 in by hand with lots of motor oil on the rings, and pushing downward and twisting. The other 3 ABSOLUTELY refused to go anywhere. I read to definitely not use the screws to push them down to avoid pinching. After tearing my hand and thumb to pieces pushing them down, I ended up using a pair of regular pliers on the wider setting to push directly down (but not squeeze!) and twist the injector back and forth. It still took a bit of work but the work of gripping the pliers and pushing them down was a lot easier than tearing my hand up trying to get them down. I was starting to wonder if my rail was somehow damaged, but eventually got them in. Seriously, this took way longer than it should have...

Edit: 2 more notes on your pics. 1) I would cover all of your holes (spark plugs, especially your valve area) while you work 2) Your intake valve covers look faded and worn like mine. Grab a can of high temp paint from your local auto store for $8 and make it look nice again. Mine were looking pretty aged, so I painted them while they were off. I just went with glossy black to be close to the OEM color since I'm not big on crazy colors under the hood. The cleanup took ~15-20 minutes per cover, and then the spray took 2 light coats and 1 medium, then some time to dry. Totally worth it while you've done all the work to take them off and for $8 IMO.

i notice the old intake gasket is sticking hard into the lower plenum. my question is once i put in the new intake gasket how do i keep it in position when i put the plenum back on?

Buy some threaded studs from a hardware store to match the thread pitch and size of the manifold bolts, and start them into the holes. place the gasket on them, lower the plenum on, and take the studs out and replace with bolts one at a time.

When I pulled my plenum, I'm pretty sure it was the first time since they put it on at the factory. I had to use a gasket scraper and simple green for a good hour to get it all off.

Thank you everyone that helped me in completing my plenum pull. Now my car purrs like a kitten

I ended up changing 3 bad injector that was out of spec with remanufactured injectors and the PTU with a new style J30 PTU which worked soooo good. GOD the plenum pull was a hugh pain. Half way through the process I just wanted to quit because it was so fustrating. I don't know what was harder pulling or putting it back on!

You guys are awesome!

RisinTiger wrote:Thank you everyone that helped me in completing my plenum pull. Now my car purrs like a kitten

I ended up changing 3 bad injector that was out of spec with remanufactured injectors and the PTU with a new style J30 PTU which worked soooo good. GOD the plenum pull was a hugh pain. Half way through the process I just wanted to quit because it was so fustrating. I don't know what was harder pulling or putting it back on!

You guys are awesome!

Congrats on a job well done!