Well i finally got out of my lazy bottom and did my valve adjustment over the weekend. I was in such a hurry that i didn't double check everything after putting the valve cover back on. After cleaning up i took the car out for a spin; she more alive and responsive-back to her old self again But after a few days i noticed patches of oil on my side of the garage

I checked my engine & tranny drain bolts and they were tight. So I popped open the hood and checked around the valve cover. ACK!! A small part of valve cover gasket slipped out of place while i was reinstalling the cover. Motor oil is all over my injectors, Intake mani, and the underside of the hood ( just imagine driving around without the engine oil filler cap ).

Luckily i found this just in time, the oil level was on the bottom marker. And i was thinking about driving her out of town this weekend. Dodged a bullet on this one

Lesson learned: Double check your work whenever you are working on the car

Le = )


[Modified by SlayANT, 4:02 AM 1/31/2002]

 

Phew... your lucky man!

 

my biggest fear is forgetting to remove the wrench used to rotate the crank underneath the car. i wonder what kind of damage that would cause!???!

 

I re-installed a intake manifold on my mustang once.. (But I forgot to take the shop rag and 1/2" wrench out from under it.
Fortunatly, I wondered where my wrench was before I started it...

 

This is my problem. I do this all the time.
Just makes a big racket and scares you half to death.

 

Ditto

 

ive broke a few ratchets in half doing just that........no biggie, take em back to sears....

 

Yea I forgot to take the wrench off the crank pulley one time and I honestly thought my engine blew up when I started the car up.


[Modified by Vonte', 6:55 PM 1/31/2002]

 

Great advice. Here's another story to reinforce it.

My roomate and I just replaced the turbo on his DSM a few weeks ago. When we took everything out we put rags in any opening to keep out dust and such. Well after the turbo reinstall we started the car up and it wouldn't idle right at all, it was stcuk at about 3k rpms. We looked at the throttle body and it seemed stuck, it wouldn't return to it's original position after pressing the gas pedal unless you manually forced it. Since the car had been sitting for a few months and it had been cold we thought it just needed some cleaning.

When we took it off we found the rag that had been stuffed into the intercooler pipe had been wedged into the throttle body and had got stuck in the butterfly valve. Duh! That sure explained why the throttle body wasn;t closed all the way. Talk about lucky though, it would have been a real mess had the rag made it's way through the TB and into the manifold...

 

thats why you dont stick rags or papertowels everywhere.

 

Yep. Lesson learned that's for sure...