Working on the Van Again.

Exhaust Manifold

If you remember, I had to abort the Nevada trip because the van was running real bad.
I thought that the exhaust Manifold gasket had blown out after one particularly loud backfire.

Taking Off the Manifold.

I got back from the cabin last Wednesday and have been avoiding working on the van since.

Yesterday I decided that I couldn’t put it off any longer and moved the vehicles around so the van was on the driveway in front the shop.
I took off the air filter and unplugged all the connectors on the TBI.

Spraying Coolant on Everything.

To get to one of the manifold bolts I had to remove the temperature sender from the head. There was a little pressure in the radiator so when the sender was loosened coolant sprayed out all over the engine and on the intake manifold.

A possible Vacuum Leak.

The next thing I did was to remove the TBI from the Manifold.
When I took the TBI off I noticed some oily stuff on the gasket and on the bottom of the TBI.

Here you can see the oil on the bottom of the TBI.

Here you can see the residue on the manifold gasket.

You can see the impression of the TBI on the gasket. There is some places where there is no impression on the gasket. It looks like oil has leaked past the gasket at these places. I think the oil is residue from the major oil leak that occurred when the oil filler tube fell off several weeks ago.

Pulling the Manifold.

It was time to pull off the manifold. Some of the bolts were hard to get to but eventually once I remove the exhaust pipe the manifold came out.
Once I got the manifold’s out I turned it over and found this big hole in the intake Manifold.

On the other end of the intake is another plugged hole.
You can see the red silicone holding the plug in. I don’t know what the plugs are for unless they are there to keep a big back fire from breaking the manifold. Exhaust gasses go into this area of the intake manifold probably to warm the manifold up.

I can’t tell if the plug is metal or plastic. It looks like a plastic plug.
Now, I have to figure out where to get a new plug.

Manifold Gasket Leaks.

While I had the manifold off I checked out the gasket. It looks like all the exhaust ports were leaking. The input ports looked good but it is harder to see any evidence of leakage there.
The manifold bolts are hard to get to so it is hard to tighten them up. I will have to be very aware of this when I put the manifold back on.

Okay that is where I stopped for the day. I’ll have to get new gaskets and figure out the plug thing.