Valve cover gaskets...what a job

I'm betting it's the coolant flow path. Probably goes from pass side to drivers side making the drivers side head a bit hotter. Plus the PCV valve in there. Just a theory.

 

Cleaned it up a bunch with blue towels and brake clean and got a lot of the crud off. Left the PCV because I actually swapped it about 2 years ago, its a purple part from a land cruiser. RTV'd up and back together, torqued down to just under 5 ft-lbs. Now we wait!

I also have some 12 hole fuel injectors burning a hole in my parts bin...I don't really *want* to install them but how often do I take off all the vacuum lines and the airbox? I probably just should while I'm here...

 

@shifty`

 

Hot damn!

 

Piece of advice: When you're getting comfortable, one at a time. Run with the VC gasket change for a week to make sure everything is cool. Then do the injectors. Just to confirm nothing is amiss. Then move onto the next thing.

 

Don’t expect miracles from the injector swap

 

Avast, me land lubbers! We are all buttoned up, with two new valve covers and a set of 12 hole fuel injectors. To be honest, it was kind of now or summer foe the fuel injectors, I don't get access to a dry garage very often. I've turned the car on to get the fuel system up to pressure and no leaks! We shall test the valve covers once the RTV dries in the morning.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, when I initially pulled the airbox off, the damn hose clamp from the air tubing to the intake was loose!!! Argggg!!! The only person who would have ever touched that was the shop I got my timing belt done at in August 2020, meaning I've been sucking in dirt post-air filter for over 3 years! Fortunately, it was still on there pretty good, but not perfect as evidenced by a bit of dirt in the intake. Protein, I guess. I don't burn any oil that isn't on the top end so it seems like it didn't do much/any damage, but still. Frustrating!

 

That's a pretty tight fitting hose so I doubt much of anything got in there. Should be fine.

 

You talking about the foam-wrapped hoses, one per side? If yes, I just replaced mine. The one on the PCV side was loosely fitting on the PCV. Was pretty wallered out and I found several cracks at that end of the hose when I removed. If my garage-kept ~77k mile truck is there, I can only imagine what others may be like.

 

Not the foam wrapped hoses, sorry. The main air intake hose. Like the large ~4 inch diameter one. Leading right into the butterfly valve.

Yeah, it doesn't look like much got in there, there was defintely some dirt on the butterfly valve but nothing I couldn't expect from regular use anyways. That, and since it's post-MAF it may have messed up my air/fuel ratio and made it run lean. We shall see.

 

A tad bit of smoke on startup, but after further inspection it's just the oil that was already present from falling onto the exhaust. After a few minutes I tightened up the VC bolts and no more smoke came out. I think my placebo tells me it runs just a tiny bit smoother between the VC gaskets and the fuel injectors. Thanks everyone for the moral support!

 

Leaky injector can cause startup smoke too. If it continues dripping after turning the engine off, accumulated fuel won’t burn cleanly and you’ll see a puff of smoke out of the tailpipe.

 

What oil do you use?

 

Mobil 1 high mileage synthetic for years but switching to Pennzoil synthetic.