Holy Crap!!! Got the intake manifold off, went into the left bank and cylinder 6 plug hole was FILLED with oil, 4 was pretty bad too and 2 was fair but the plugs.... good lord the looked original! Broke two mounting bracket bolts (not a bug deal, both very accessible) and the wire loom is cracking and falling apart but otherwise all is well. I am going to tackle the valve cover gaskets, plug seals, wire and spark plugs tomorrow. Once I get it running again I’ll see if the codes are still up then change the O2 sensor if needed. It was slow today but good progress and I found a torque chart.

 

Get couple sizes of split loom wire sheating and replace all the old cracking pieces. I had to do it on my 2001. It helped to clean up and tidy up the engine compartment. They come in different sizes and itsveasyvwork when you have intake manifold off. Fixing the leaks on tbe spark plug tubes should help with eliminating possible causes for misfire. Swollen spark plug wire ends may not sit fully on the spark plugs. Even if it does not fix the inderlying csuse of misfire, it's good to eliminate those leaks.

 

It seems you are tackling quite the job. Most people shy away from getting as far as you've gone already, sounds like you're no stranger to performing mechanical labor. I figured I'd post a tip on how to get your valve covers to seal properly. The 6G72 and 6G74 are notorious for leaking valve covers, the valve cover gaskets usually fail in short order after replacement! Getting tired of this after replacing them 5 or 6 times with different brands and replacement mint condition valve covers, I set out to find what would work and found a solution.

(1): Once you have the valve covers off, I recommend using a heat gun to warm up the valve cover gaskets to ease in their removal, if they have never been changed they will be hard as a rock when cold and almost impossible to remove. When you warm them up, they become pliable and you can use a pair of needle nose to peel off large strips at a time.

(2): Thoroughly clean the valve cover gasket seat(s) and the mating surface on the head(s) and insure no leftover oil is present, I would use a wire wheel to clean the grooves and remove as mush paint as you can. Test fit your gaskets into the groves so you know what orientation they are supposed to be ( I swear the first couple times I installed new gaskets I thought it was a puzzle lol)

NOTE: Perform step three on one valve cover at a time to insure accuracy.
(3): Use black or orange RTV and apply a generous bead along the gasket seat on the valve cover (where the gasket sits down into) and let it sit for 5 minutes. Once the timer is up, place the gasket into the groove and then run your finger along the gasket while applying consistent light/moderate pressure to insure the RTV is being squished into the gaps that are in the gasket seat (these gaps are leftover from the manufacturing process), wait about 10-15 minutes and carefully install the valve cover onto the head.
Bolts = 26.55 IN-LBS or 2 FT-LBS(Use blue Loctite)

NOTE: Please allow 24 hours for the RTV to cure before starting the engine.

Explanation:
The valve covers have two fatal flaws which causes the excessive oil leaks. First, the gasket seats have folds and gaps in them from the assembly method which mean consistent pressure is not supplied to the gasket and also means it won't sit flat in the groove. Secondly, each valve cover is a two piece unit which has been stamped together to make a single cover which in of itself wouldn't be an issue except that there is a large gap between each piece which allows oil to pool along the top of the gasket because of the aforementioned gaps and folds. Believe it or not, even Fel-Pros website mentions this could be an issue in some scenarios and RTV is the solution for it. You can read it here under section "When to use RTV".

If you have any questions, fire away and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

Valve covers took some extra doing, gaskets were blue (not sure if they are factory or not, the new Felpros are blue as are the plug seals) and the plug seals were hard as rocks. I cleaned the grooves with a wire brush, hear gun method worked great for removal. Cleaned mating surface on the block as well. I put the new valve cover gasket in the freezer while I RTV the valve cover. Let’s see how this rolls

 

Black is the OEM color for the gasket, and blue could be any one of many aftermarket brands. Did you try dropping one of the plug seals? It's fun watching them shatter.

I have to ask because my curiosity is killing me. Why'd you put the VC gasket in the freezer? I've never needed to shrink one for install.

 

Just finished up the second valve cover gasket, plug seals, wires and plugs. Going to start the reassembly in a few days as works calls tomorrow. I have Jack stands now so I am going to attack the O2 sensors left and right after that’s done.
Yes, I always like to shrink my gaskets and I need them to fit right so I didn’t have to play around with the RTV I put in the valve cover.
I also put in a new manifold gasket while I was at it.
I will say that I have never gone this far on a project before but with videos, advice, and confidence it’s going by quickly. I figure I am going to save about $1000 to $1200 dollars in labor by doing it this way. I am not counting normal replacement stuff like wiper blades and tires (those will need to be done next year) but I am putting a cap on this of $1500, that puts me at $5500 all in.

 

https://www.emanualonline.com/cars/m...0aAvrmEALw_wcB

Found this, can anyone verify the legitimacy of this site, manual, etc.? I realize that as much as I do t want to I will need to go PDF so.... with that in mind, this site seems legit but also much cheaper than a technical manual in paper format so... why?

 

SO,got everything back together, wanted to go for a test drive but the idle RPMs are WAY to low. I see that there is an idle adjustment stop screw located on the throttle body but I am not sure that the right answer. The power is back but I got faults right away again. I replaced both upstream O2 sensors and it was much smoother and things seemed to quiet down a bit after a long time idling. I want to bring up the idle speed to about 900 RPM, it is stumbling at the 500 RPM ling right now, so low that the lights are flickering. I searched here but most of the posts talked about Montero Sports or later model Montero XLSs (with the 3.8). I am going to take it for a nice long drive tomorrow, clean out the cylinders of the oil that got into them during the plug and wire change. I will also stop and get the OBD II tool hooked up to get a look at the codes that remain. Any help on the idle adjustment would be great, I am excited about it being my daily driver.
Also, I think crud cutter is the right engine cleaner to use but any thoughts on a better one? When they pressure washed the engine at the dealership and it just pushed all the crap to the bottom half of the engine. I just want it clean so I can diagnose if the gaskets I replaced are leaking. Thanks ya'll

 

I can tell you right away not to adjust the idle with that screw. The computer notice the difference through the throttle position sensor and adjust the idle back anyway. As far as the rough/low idle is concerned, have you checked for vacuum leaks?

 

Found one vacuum hose not connected, it didn’t really fox the issue. I purchased replacement vacuum hose because several lines were starting to harden up and had some cracks. Started replacing the line and the problem GOT WORSE! Now it won’t stay running.
Did a scan with OBD II diagnostic tool and still getting a P300 (the other two are fixed). Problems can be numerous, tried to do a vacuum leak test with a nifty smoke machine hooked up to the intake after the sensor and no luck, didn’t see anything. Thoughts! I am going back to the original hoses cause at least it worked BUT, this tells me that it should FOR SURE be a vacuum problem.

Should the canister at the bottom of this photo have a hose on it going to something??


Replaced all the vacuum line you see and cleaned connectors with contact spray cleaner.