It's a valve cover weekend

[bmiszuk]

I'm leaking real bad from the left side valve cover. It drifts down over the oil cooler lines (I already replaced the O-rings there) and making a huge mess. So on this fine Monday morning, I'll spend my vacation day removing and reinstalling the valve covers. tongue.gif

My question is this: is there anything else I should check or do while I am in there? Should I check anything on the rockers, pushrods, etc?

Thanks.

Bob

[john8662]

I'd recommend Pulling the intake manifold so you can remove the injection lines completely from the engine, this gets them out of the way from removing the valve covers. Some just bend the lines out of the way, this is not a good practice. This will affect the ID size of the line and could possibly crimp them. So, I go through the trouble of removing the intake so I can get all the IP lines off. You'll want to cover up the injector inlets on each injector, the plastic hats that come on new injectors work well. Basically you want to keep from contaminating the injectors with dirt from removing the valve covers above.

Some other things to consider removing to make the job easier would be the A/C compressor, if you have room just remove it and set it to the side still connected to the lines. Also, you will want to remove the injection pump line and wiring harness support plates that bolt above the valve covers. While you're at it, carefully remove the plastic clips that hold the wiring harness to those plates and disconnect all the glow plug wires, etc. so you can get the harness out of the way.

You'll find that the more you remove, the less trouble you'll have getting the valve covers off and then re-installed when you have the RTV on them.

It's fun, I've done it a few times here lately :rolleyes:

[ 05-28-2005, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: john8662 ]

[bmiszuk]

Thanks John. I also need glow plugs (some of them are stuck), maybe injectors, and would like to run a compression test. It sounds like I'd be better off doing it all at the same time, but I wasn't really planning on doing it all right now ($$$). It'd be a shame to take off all the lines and everything and not at least r/r the glow plugs.

What are your thoughts about injectors? The previous owner bought the truck in the early 1990's and it supposedly only has 135k miles on it now. He says he never replaced injectors, only the IP. Are there any guidelines about when injectors get replaced?

In the back of my mind, I have this fear that I'll start fixing leaks, making repairs, and end up where Casey is -- doing a full rebuild! :D

[john8662]

At 135K on original injectors, they have served their time.

You'll want to do this all in steps.

First do the compression test. This way you'll be able to run the engine to operating temperature, remove the air cleaner and do the test. And while you have the glow plug out, you can go ahead and install the new one when you're done with each cylinder.

Then, after you're done here, you can go ahead and do the rest of the R&R. Since you now you're removing the injectors, you could go ahead and take them all out and stuff some good paper towel into each port where the injector was. I prefer the good plain thick VIVA paper towels for working on stuff. This will keep the dirt out of the empty hole where the injector was, thus keeping dirt out of the engine (very important). Then you can proceed to removing and then re-sealing the valve covers. I wouldn't worry much about looking for anything on the rockers/valvetrain since your engine is running normally. Just re-seal whats leaking and go on.

I'm in the same boat Casey was, but I did all the upgrades and maintenance trying to fix something that was not fixable by bolt-ons (injectors/ip/gears/girdle/oil pump/lifters) yada yada yada.