lower intake manifold gasket in progress!!!

[juanito115]

ahhhhhhhh!!!!! what a relief!!!! Finally done. Finished it today. It took me and my friend almost a week to finish it. The no-start problem was due to the distributor being 180 degrees off as I first suspected. Doeyh, dont' be afraid to do it. just be patient and pay attention to how things go. I got lots of help from this forum. Thanks to all those who took their time to replied back!!!

Things that kept me back:

1. Leak at the back coolant ports.
solution: took everything back out and used lots of rtv.

2. Fuel line messed up threads.
solution: used some string that I found laying around to get the fuel line to start the threads. wrapped it around the threads and voila!!! ( no fuel leaks btw)

3. No start.
solution: distributor 180 degrees off. Took me a long time to get the distributor in the right place.

so far so good. we test-drived the truck and no leaks. Two small problems arouse from this. 1- check engine light on which at autoZ came up to be code P0340 which is something about the cam sensor, the guy said. And, 2- the tach quit working. I think the check engine light came up as a result of the distributor not being in the right place, but if someone knows about this let me know. Thetruck is running fine btw. The second proble I have an idea of what it might bebut not sure. Is it the connector at the distributor or the coil? If I can get any help from you guys, It'll be appreciated. Also if anybody needs any info on this job I'll be more than willing to help!!!!!

[sebryce]

Regarding the torque sequence and foot lbs., now that I know I screwed up and torque the manifold to high and have been running it for 3 days now, is it too late? Did I damage the block and main bearing? I will tear it down again and put a new gasket set and RTV; I just hope I did not cause permanent damage... Jeremy & muddog321, I have printed out your torque instruction and have already purchased a better torque wrench. Appreciate your help.

juanito115, my check engine light was on as well but turned off after one day of running and after filling my gas tank and putting the cap on real snug...

[skyzend]

One last step ....
Check your oil periodically to ensure that there is no coolant leaking internally.
This can lead to major problems .... main bearing failure etc.

Also, you mentioned at the beginning of your thread that you heard noises.
This could be an indication that there could be bearing problems already. A change of oil could reduce these noises. They would however re-appear if coolant was getting in the oil after the change. If this is the case major bearing failure would likely be a prolonged result.

Oil should be changed after your procedure anyway. Ensure that there are no contaminants (coolant) in the existing oil and that the new oil stays clean.

[juanito115]

thanks skysend! Yeah, the check engine light was due to the CMP not being connected at the back of the distributor!! we connected that back and voila!! we have rpms and no more check engine light!! I told my friend to kep an eye on the oil for any signs of coolant laking internally but he says that everything seems fine so far!! After we put everything back together, we flushed the engine with the Gunk engine flush. It got rid of all the coolant that was mixed with the oil inside the engine. He says that the truck feels GREAT!! it gets up and goes!! Of course, with all that carbon and oil that we cleaned from the upper and lower intakes and tb, what was he expecting?!!!!!lol!! Thanks guys for your help!!