Easter Gaskets! Finale

So here is the finale...

Multiple Beers, frustrations, and a search for valve cover bolts that was equal to an episode of "24" culminated in a successful replacement of a valve cover gasket...

If you notice the nice new shiny bolts that are on the valve cover gasket, those are the new ones!

Speaking for a moment on the issue of locating valve cover bolt replacements: Don't bother doing a search online for these...No one thought to offer this part...If you call the dealership, they will tell you that it will take a week and they will be in on Tuesday...I went to the dealership to order them and the guy in the parts department gave me the same bolt for free...I went to put them on the valve cover and needed washers because the bolt was not capped....SOOOOOOOOOO!!! I called in a chopper and flew over to Advanced Auto parts to get some bolts...In the search for an appropriate washer, guess what I found?! The actual same friggin bolt as the original one, except it was a stronger version...

Note to those with the same or similar Jeep as mine...If the valve cover bolts have slashes on the top, that means its the USA version of measurement not the metric system...The bolts for my valve cover are 1/4-20 and are capped...Meaning the washer is basically already part of the head piece...You can buy four of these for about $2.50 at the auto parts store...Bring an orginal bolt for comparison and measurement and you should be fine...

When you call around for a simple part like that and ask the person who is supposed to know what the hell you are talking about, they act like it is some major component and cannot be found without ordering....The truth is, it is just a USA standard 1/4-20 one inch grade 5 bolt that you can pick up at the local auto parts shop!

Easter Gaskets! (cont. again)

The instructions in the manual say to clean off the mating surface of the valve cover before applying the new gasket...I started with a paint scraper and screw driver, but after not getting anywhere quickly, I switched to the polishing tool on my almighty DREMEL...

It worked amazingly! The dremel along with some grease lighting and foam engine degreaser worked wonders to assist in cleaning out the interior of the valve cover...Here are some more photos of the progress as the cleaning progressed:

Easter Gaskets! (cont.)

I started the day by waking up and having a big hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy...Following that I contacted my buds Jay and Kevin to facilitate their assistance...I figured three brains are better than one, unfortunately as far as mechanics go, we added up to maybe a 1/4 of a brain; although now looking back, it may have been the alcohol...Just like Jamie Foxx says; "Blame it on the a a a a a alcohol!"

After breakfast, the boys came over and we went to the auto parts store and decided to change the oil first....The day started out great; got a fantastic deal on five quarts of fully synthetic motor oil and a K&N oil filter...All of it came to $25; I could not have been happier...I grabbed an oil pan and a filter wrench and drove back home.

I decided to take the Jeep to heat the engine up a bit before the oil change in order to get the oil to flow out better...Besides sparking myself up on the starter while trying to remove the oil filter, everything went off without a hitch....My first oil change, 101,900 miles on 04/10/09...

Back to Easter Gaskets!

After the oil change, my beautiful wife Cathi came home and we all decided we should go celebrate with lunch on the water...It was an awesome sunny day out and thought it would be awesome to have lunch and a few drinks...

After lunch we returned home to work on the Jeep...The hood was open and we prepared to begin...Prepare as in have a few more beers! I took hold of the shiny ratchet...Twist, twist, twist, SNAP!!! My dumb@%% snapped off the bolt inside of the housing...There was nothing else to do but continue...After snapping the second bolt, I realized that I was tightening the bolts, not loosening them...Always remember...Righty tighty; lefty loosey...The thing I can't figure out, is

that I got that sequence correct on the beer bottles, but somehow switched it when I got under the hood!

In my anger and frustration, the broken bolts ended up somewhere across the street in the open lots thanks to my buddy Jay, who threw them as far as he could...I did manage; however, to remove the remaining threads from the housing (WHEW!)

Here is a picture of the valve cover after it was removed...I was able to save all but four of the bolts...

Beware the "Idles" of March

So far I have changed the Muffler and now I feel good about myself...Unfortunately, there is more learning to do...I noticed while driving that the engine Idles very high when in neutral...I begin to trouble shoot in my repair guide and using common sense start to check the simple things like the air filter....come to find out, the old air filter was black with oil...I thought it was weird that oil would get into the air box the way it did and through some more research learned that the PCV Valve is probably clogged with gunk... What I learned is that these little pieces on top of the valve cover, pushes blow by air into the intake box...When they get all grimy and clogged, it apparently shoots some of the gunk along with the air, causing some oil on the filter...This thing was nasty...I had purchased a new PCV valve from the auto parts store...but it was the wrong one...So I used some degreaser and soaked it for a while, then used a handgun bore brush and cleaned it out...The end result was this:

A little tip I learned is to remove the hosing from the valve before twisting it on the valve cover casing...I broke the 18 year old plastic hosing, which was full of oil and needed to be replaced anyway...

I noticed when I was playing with the PCV valve that the inside of the valve cover was disgustingly filled with gunk and grime...as sign along with the clogged valve that the oil hasn't been changed in quite some time...That will be done on my next day off...before I put all this stuff back on....

I also swapped out the old air filter for a brand new one...I then removed the intake house that connects to the throttle body to see how the throttle body looked and if it needed to be cleaned...The throttle body was surprisingly clean...certainly not what I expected to see after seeing how gunky everything else was...
Here are some photos of what I am talking about....

To make a short story long...After all this and placing in a new air filter, cleaning out the PCV valve, changing the PCV hose and cleaning out the air box and the intake hose...I hook everything back up and turn the Jeep on and guess what! IT IDLES PERFECT NOW!!!!

I still want to get the engine cleaned up some more...Next on the project is an oil change with some synthetic oil, differential and transfer case fluid changes along with fuel injector cleaning or replacement depending on the level of dirtyness and difficulty...

Just a quick note...If it sounds at all like I know what I am talking about...good for me for fooling you...I have no idea what I am doing...I have been reading forums and repair manuals on this stuff and it is my first attempt at any of this...WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT...PLEASE OFFER ADVICE....Thanks and take care....

Stay tuned for another episode of Logan's project Jeep!!!