I have a vaccum leak caused by a cracked PCV valve grommet. In fact I there is only 3/4 piece of the grommet on the manifold. And its almost as hard as stone.

Any ideas on how to soften it up to remove it without damaging the manifold or dropping it in?

I also notices that the bushings on the engine mount torque strut near the firewall seem to be worn, as there is a lot of play if I push/pull on the torque arm. Since it is loose it seems like with just the removal of the bolts I will be able to remove the torque strut arm. The question I have , is that with the new bushings in, to put in the bolts will I need to jack up the engine.

Is it safe to just use a floor jack and a wood plank on the jack, place under the pan and the work the jack to push the engine up. And do I have to loosen all the engine mounts to replace this torque mount?

Thanks in advance


The car is a 1988 Honda Accord ( carb 2.0L) . The additional problem is that the grommet that I got from Advance Auto PArts is a Motormite 42338 but seems rather different to sit in on the intake manifold. Yet it is the part that is recommended at mulitple on-line part stores like Murrrays Auto, PArts America, Autozone etc.

Interestingly Motormite no longer lists the part on their web-site.



Modified by unhappy_idle at 11:47 AM 5/22/2006

 

don't know how you would soften the grommet, but you could remove the valve cover and hold it upside down while removing the grommet if you worried about dropping pieces inside.

I've not sure which engine mount you're referring to but... You can use the jack with a piece of wood under the oil pan if your just supporting the engine while replacing the mount. Use a good size piece of wood to dispurse the weight over a larger area and you should be fine.

No, you shouldn't need to loosen any other bolts other than whats involved with that one mount.

 

The upper mount near the valve cover is fairly easy to replace. Just battling with the vaccum lines is enough. But you shouldn't need a jack to raise the engine because it's not really supporting the engine, it just limits the engines shifting while driving .