Yes, I read your post again, and you did point that out.

Out of those who have ordered from hughes (part # HUG7720R) what was the wait time form shipping to arrival?
In their website it says 4 days from payment, but now its been almost a week. I called them about 20 min ago and they said they payment has cleared, but they havent even shipped it yet. They guy on the phone said "huh, thats weird. It should have shipped 3 days ago, we even have that part instock"

Has this happened to anyone else? The longer I wait to get this fixed, the more money its costing me. Kinda frustrating.

 

So did the guy say he was going to find out what was going on, and make sure it shipped? If he was non-committal, think I would call back.....

 

Yes, I called and got it resolved. It should be here tomorrow

But now I have a new delema. So I got a wild hair today and did a vacuum test on my intake. From what I uderstand if the plenum is blown, then it will typically show up in a vacuum test. The readigs were steady at 18. Open the trottle and it snapped down to 10 then up to 20 then leveled out at 18. No bobbin up and down. It stayed steady. Just to be sure, I plugged it into more then one port. Readings were the same.

The reason I thought it was the plenum was because at idle there is a misfire. Not enough to set a code, but its there. I changed the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Problem still there.

Im still going to pull the intake and replace the pan, but I think thats the least of my worries.

I also pulled the PCV and noticed that there is a decent amount of oil blow by.

Could this actually be an issue with my heads? Loose rocker, worn springs? There is no smoke comming out of my exhaust, so I dont think its the seals. I hope its not a bent valve.

Any advice?

 

Try this test:

Unplug the PCV hose from the intake. Plug the port. Unplug the air hose to the other valve cover from the air box, and plug the hose. take off the oil fill cap. Start the engine. Put your hand over the oil fill hole. You should feel a breeze coming OUT. If there is vacuum there, plenum is blown.

Get a PCV valve from the dealer. They are actually the correct flow rate.

Check/fix that stuff first, see if the miss goes away.

 

Okay gents,

It seems like I keep running into new things. I have my truck apart and am curently working on the intake and cleaning the trottle body. Oh boy, what a mess.

Any how, When I pulled my intake off I noticed a greenish sludge filling my injector port (cylinder #1) and as I inspected the bolts, it was also covered in said sludge. It was also present on the intake. (See pictures)

Now, is this a result of the coolant not being drained all the way before ai temoved the intake or is it infact what I fear?....a blown head gasket.

The oil in the lifter valleys wassnt all slimy and greenish, it was dark brown (probiably needs to be changed) and the coolant is a lime green color, no odd colors there.



Intake bolt, coated with mucus colored sludge







Bolt hole on drivers side. Near cylinder 1





Underside of intake manifold, bolt hole #1

 

If you look close at the last pic, you can see gouges in the manifold gasket surface, that just about connect the bolt hole, to the coolant passage.

Think I would just make sure I used RTV around the coolant ports, on BOTH sides of the gasket.

 

So you dont think its a blown head gasket? Now that you pointed that there are gouges inbetween the bolt hole and the coolant passage, I can see it now. It makes sense that the gunk was olny in that spot and on the bolt. I have new gaskets for everything, so if that really is the issue, then Its going to get fixed during reassembly anyhow.

Also, any advice on how to degunk the intake itself? The back of it is plastered with crud from when my oil pressure sending unit went out. I hosed it off, but that barely scratched the surface.

 

Head gasket would put it in the cylinder, or, into the oil pan. Not an intake bolt.

I use a whizz-wheel designed for aluminum, on an angle-head die grinder, works great, but, requires that you actually can use air tools.

 

I am looking to do the 1" cut on the rails, and replacing the pan with 1/4" aluminum plate. Has any one done this mod and had issues with passing the smog test in CA? I don't want to do this and have an issue with passing.

 

Shouldn't have any effect at all on emissions. All modifications are internal, so, nothing to visually give you away either.