T-belt or valve check 1st?

[rkundrat]

Well, had a chance to get back under the hood, or under the wheel arch today... following Steve's t-belt and water pump how-to I started and completed disassembly. Toughest part was the 17mm bolt for the rigid oil cooler line. Don't actually see how I could have done it without lowering trans onto subframe. Brilliant write up Steve...

That said I want to tend to anything now that I've got it this opened up. Below cam pulleys didn't seem to be wet, but maybe I'm not looking in the right area as the ps pump was covered.

Steering rack boots both torn, so wondering if I should replace the entire rack, or just new boots. That

Sway bar frame bushings looked squished, but what's the best way to check the rest of the bushings, ball joints, etc?

Might make sense to snap some pics so wiser eyes can better assess what I'm looking at. That aside, this is the most in-depth work I've done on my car yet... and I'm LOVING it!

[Alfisto Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gt601 Is it me or does the exhaust lobe on the cam in the 1st picture look worn? Paul

[Michael Smith]

Another potentially troublesome spot is the gasket at the top of each spark plug well. These notoriously leak oil into the well which eventually causes ignition problems. I recommend you put new such gaskets in each time the cam covers come off.

[rkundrat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Smith Another potentially troublesome spot is the gasket at the top of each spark plug well. These notoriously leak oil into the well which eventually causes ignition problems. I recommend you put new such gaskets in each time the cam covers come off.

[rkundrat]

I got the water pump belt and tensioner installed today as well as a few hoses. The lower radiator to water pump gave some trouble as I couldn't exactly remember how the metal tube in between was supposed to go. First time doing tensioner wasn't to bad. I just went slow and rotated the engine probably 2 dozen times just to watch pointer realign to indicator mark at TDC. Took a couple pics of oily area, ps pump. Clearly a leak from that as there is red fluid at the base. The rack boot is torn, but I'm not sure if that could cause fluid up on the pump.

[rkundrat]

Valve clearances all checked out to within spec, so I put it back together today. One thing I didn't do (that I should have) was follow Steve's instructions in reverse... I denied myself access to a few bolts in reassembling things in the wrong order. So that in conjunction with dropping a bolt down between the cylinder banks cost me a bit of time, but it's done! I've not started it yet, but filled it up with coolant and will check for leaks tomorrow... I had one drip immediately, luckily it was the front block drain that I hadn't fully tightened. If all is dry tomorrow I'll start it and bleed the system, can't wait!

[rkundrat]

Finger's crossed (no mater how many times I turned the engine over by hand) I fired her up last night. Seems largely like I did things right, except for that it kind of stumbled to life vs the typical roar I usually get... I threw caution to the wind and drove it into work today. It has trouble holding an idle when cold, and doesn't idle smoothly at stop when hot. I do get a check engine light after idling for a short while, but have not noticed it while driving. I'll pull codes later, but any thoughts prior to that?


Just checked codes:
1223 - The heated lambda probe regulator inner adjuster reaches the minimum or the maximum value of correction.

[Alfisto Steve]

How old is your 10% corn whiskey and gas mixture?

[rkundrat]

I had less than a quarter tank a so filled up this morning a put a can of BG44k in there. No difference in the running condition.

I may be jumping to conclusions here, but I'm not sure when the dist and rotor were last replaced. I tried pulling the front plug wires off while idling after my drive home from work, and it's stumbling so much I couldn't really even notice a difference... (plugs are new.)

[Alfisto Steve]

OK check that rotor, carbon button in cap and injector wire connectors.

[rkundrat]

I'm not entirely sure what would indicate the cap/rotor is bad so snapped some pics. Some build up where they meet, but the the carbon button looks to contact the center fine.

When checking injector wires, am I looking for actual splits, or should I do a continuity check somewhere? The wires are definitely hard, so I'm worried to move them too much.

[Alfisto Steve]

Your cap, rotor and carbon button look useable. Clean off (sand) end of rotor and 6 terminals in cap. When carbon button worn down it won't stick out of cap like that.

Check inside rotor where button hits and check resistance os rotor from center to end (about 1.1k ohm).

Now as for injector connectors you may have dreaded green corrosion where wire terminals plug into injectors. You have to use something small like a dental pick to unlock wire locks on Bosch connectors to get them off injectors. I am sure they are brittle by now so don't pull off until you lift wire locks.

I had to do this to my 164B and then I unlocked wires from brittle connectors with small small electrican's screwdriver (actually smaller eye glass repair one best). Had to clean each wire terminal and injector terminal one at a time with small wire brush and contact cleaner.

Be sure you do only one at a time and reinsert wires into new terminal end with red and yellow wires in correct holes using notch in another not yet disassembled connector for reference. You have to reset little locking tab on wire terminals so they will lock back into connectors.

I got good new used quick release connectors with rubber boots from some junked Volvos at local Pick-N-Pull "junk" yard.

If you need to buy new ones here is some info from chazzy:
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/164-...onnectors.html

[rkundrat]

Cleaned up cap and rotor and still running rough.... I'll clean the injector connectors this weekend. Should I be running tests on the injectors themselves, or just clean at this point?

[Alfisto Steve]

Not much test to injectors you can do yourself except check connector terminals and injector pins for corrosion.

If injector spray pattern in uneven and filter socks dirty you can only get them flow tested and cleaned.
I use Rich at Cruzin Performance He pretests before cleaning and after cleaning and installs new filter socks, orings and pintle caps. He gives you reports on your injectors you can print off from his web site.

[rkundrat]

So I had time to pull and clean 4 of the 6 this morning before work. Overall they were quite clean to begin with. All sealed nicely, and a very minor amount of white corrosion.

I also took the highway to work so have a better impression now how it's driving. At anything above idle, the car feels fine, doesn't miss, very smooth. Flogging it on the on ramp, it was very smooth. It's only when idling that the it sounds like it's misfiring.

On an entirely separate note, left rear shock feels soft. Over expansion joints in the road the car dips on that corner further which steers the car to the right slightly. Not a good feeling... Also need to find out where on front exhaust manifold the leak is as I can here it ticking...