UPDATE: 16 hours of labor later, the plenum plate is installed, intake manifold is all buttoned up and the job is a success! Now, I have to figure out why the truck still has that silly idle rough idle problem when she's warming up. I'm guessing it's either the IAC, or the O2 sensor. Oh well, at least the plate was taken care of.

When I removed the plate, not only was there oil pooled up on the plate, but there was also sludge! I'm guessing this truck has had this issue for a while now. At least the big job is done for now - now on to the idle problem.

THANK YOU to all who gave input and advice. It helped out IMMENSELY when it came to the reinstallation of the intake manifold.

 

It can take a few days for your pcm to "relearn" how your engine runs now that you made repairs. It's used to trying to compensate for the huge vacuum leak from the plenum. Unless you find an obvious problem give it a few days to sort its self out.

 

Hrmmm....so this could be why it's having this problem between 130* and normal operating temp. It has this problem whether it's idling or I'm driving it - and this problem happened before I changed the plenum gasket, too.

 

did you reset your computer?

might help the computer learn a bit quicker!

 

After I did my Plenum, I ran some Mopar Combution Chamber Cleaner through the engine and then I changed my spark plugs. Depending on how bad your leak was your plugs could be fouled.

 

I don't think it's the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap or rotor, since I replaced all of them and they're all routed correctly, gapped properly, and torqued down to proper specification. Also, I torqued down the plate and the intake manifold in sequence to the proper specification.

I'll try resetting the computer, maybe that will help it out. Otherwise, I'm going to have to further chase down this problem.

 

BUMP:

Reset computer, still has same problem. Also, I can smell unburned gasoline around the same time that it happens. It happens a couple of minutes after starting the truck, whether I drive it or I let it warm up.

What would cause this to happen? I checked the area where I did the work and everything seems to be just fine.