I finished my plenum repair a have 1 issue that I will explain later. First off, I had my plenum gasket replaced by the dealership under warranty several years ago and was told that I wouldn't have any more problems. Well, when I pulled my intake and turned it over I was expecting to see a gasket material sticking out. When I did'nt see any I thought crap, I pulled this off for nothing. After removing the pan I was a little shocked to see that the gasket was a piece of metal approx .008 thick and it had been leaking. I now have the hughes plate on now. I also replaced my timing chain (140K on it) and it hadabout 1/2 slop in it.

Now my problem. I have a very slight coolant leak at the back (of course) of the manifold. I can't see it but the drip come down on the inspection plate of the tranny. I get a drop every 2 or 3 minutes. I don't want to rip into this again right now so is there any other options or do I just let it go for the time being? I did retorque the manifold bolts again to 12 ft. lbs. after I noticed the leak and got maybe 1/8 of a turn.

A big Thanks to this site and everyones input and threads.

Thanks again

 

I don't think I have a coolant leak because I've driven around today and havent seen a drop. What I think it was is I was parked facing uphill when I did the job. When I pulled the intake, coolant ran out the back and pooled somewhere. When I started it up I noticed the drips and when I pulled out of the drive way I saw a trail of coolant and then it stopped and I havent seen any since.

 

good stuff willb,i got to tackle mine one weekend.how long did it take you to do entire job.

 

Taking my time and not rushing 2 days. I did plenum, timing chain, all the hoses and valve cover gaskets. I spent a few hours trying to find a 36mm wrench to take off the fan. None of the auto parts stores had one so I wound up grinding the teeth off of an old pipe wrench and it worked great. If you are doing the timing chain and sprokets you can pull the cover without dropping the oil pan. Just take out the 2 oil pan bolts that attach to the timing chain cover and carefully lift up on the cover and hold the oil pan gasket in place. I also recommend changing out your valve cover gaskets. Since you have the intake off and hoses out of the way it's real easy to access them. If you have any questions just ask. It's not that difficult.

Good luck

 

Yeah, your coolant was probably just leftover from the job. Some of it will sit in the valley between the head and intake.

But I know how you feel. Tearing into an engine and you are afraid of doing something wrong. I went out and bought an ABC fire extinguisher for my truck after I did my plenum and 1.7s.

I only have 49K on my engine, so I won't be doing the timing chain unless I get really courageous and get a camshaft. But right now I am just looking around for heads, headers, wideband 02 and cats. I want to do all those in the next 2 years.