rayra
Expedition Leader
well spent this morning excising my intake manifold and clearing the way to go after presumptive oil leaks in the upper back / top deck area of the motor. And it certainly looks oily enough for there to be some.
I also found a similar array of rat / mouse poop, and a chewed up snail shell supper. Definitely have some local rodentia that like to climb up on top of warm engines to shelter for the night.
It's been 2-3yrs / ~10-15k mi since the last time I had this apart and cleaned it all thoroughly. And this is after degreasing yesterday. Somewhere in the upper front I am blowing oily sooty schmutz and I have no idea from where. The oil filler tube is properly seated and sealed, as are the valve covers. All my radiators / condensers are dry and clean, so it's not coolant, trans oil or R134. At least not from those sources or airflow direction. Factory air intake works, in good order. There's one fuel vapor vent / solenoid on the top front of the vortec manifold and it was wobbly-loose despite being bolted tight. IT should be under suction when the engine is running and the vent solenoid (evac) is triggered, so it should not be blowing ******** all over. The throttle plate has a coolant circ / warmer line attached, no signs of leaks on it.
That's going to take some more examination / detective work.
On to the upper back deck / end of the galley cover plate. 'yep, there's yer problem right there'.
Oil sender on the right, middle I think is the crank/cam position sensor? Left is the sopping wet flow area that corresponds roughly to where I have oil trickling down, having my Sub mark it's territory. Rains down and over the starter location. I'm probably going to cover the intake runners and hose some degreaser on that back shelf area and down the back of the block and transmission bell and carefully hose it down, before continuing with disassembly on the knock sensors and galley plate. And on that crank sensor setup. After first seeing if any bolts are loose. I have a galley cover plate gasket to install and it looks like my knock sensor sealing job is holding great since the last time.
Last is a shot down the front chamber of the Vortec manifold.
Very little oily residue. the blurry gray gasket around the edges of the image is the gasket / plane that the throttle plate bolts to. Just air goes in here, and the fat line from the PCV dumps into the top of the manifold, about that shadowed recess, top middle of the pic. The half-dollar? sized hole center-back is part of where the air enters the main chamber of the manifold before flowing down the intake runners to the heads. These motors are port-injected, the fuel spray is right before the transition from manifold plastic to aluminum head intake runner. So basically a lot of oily air swirling around with the fuel only injected right at the end.
so after lunch and some cold water, and rigging a patio umbrella for some shade, I'll get back to rectifying the oil leak and hopefully get it all back together and running by dinner time.
I also found a similar array of rat / mouse poop, and a chewed up snail shell supper. Definitely have some local rodentia that like to climb up on top of warm engines to shelter for the night.
It's been 2-3yrs / ~10-15k mi since the last time I had this apart and cleaned it all thoroughly. And this is after degreasing yesterday. Somewhere in the upper front I am blowing oily sooty schmutz and I have no idea from where. The oil filler tube is properly seated and sealed, as are the valve covers. All my radiators / condensers are dry and clean, so it's not coolant, trans oil or R134. At least not from those sources or airflow direction. Factory air intake works, in good order. There's one fuel vapor vent / solenoid on the top front of the vortec manifold and it was wobbly-loose despite being bolted tight. IT should be under suction when the engine is running and the vent solenoid (evac) is triggered, so it should not be blowing ******** all over. The throttle plate has a coolant circ / warmer line attached, no signs of leaks on it.
That's going to take some more examination / detective work.
On to the upper back deck / end of the galley cover plate. 'yep, there's yer problem right there'.
Oil sender on the right, middle I think is the crank/cam position sensor? Left is the sopping wet flow area that corresponds roughly to where I have oil trickling down, having my Sub mark it's territory. Rains down and over the starter location. I'm probably going to cover the intake runners and hose some degreaser on that back shelf area and down the back of the block and transmission bell and carefully hose it down, before continuing with disassembly on the knock sensors and galley plate. And on that crank sensor setup. After first seeing if any bolts are loose. I have a galley cover plate gasket to install and it looks like my knock sensor sealing job is holding great since the last time.
Last is a shot down the front chamber of the Vortec manifold.
Very little oily residue. the blurry gray gasket around the edges of the image is the gasket / plane that the throttle plate bolts to. Just air goes in here, and the fat line from the PCV dumps into the top of the manifold, about that shadowed recess, top middle of the pic. The half-dollar? sized hole center-back is part of where the air enters the main chamber of the manifold before flowing down the intake runners to the heads. These motors are port-injected, the fuel spray is right before the transition from manifold plastic to aluminum head intake runner. So basically a lot of oily air swirling around with the fuel only injected right at the end.
so after lunch and some cold water, and rigging a patio umbrella for some shade, I'll get back to rectifying the oil leak and hopefully get it all back together and running by dinner time.
