Please help. CEL and smoke after changing valve cover gasket. I'm freaking out.
03-24-16, 02:53 PM
#1
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Please help. CEL and smoke after changing valve cover gasket. I'm freaking out.
Hi guys. I tried to help my aunt with her car and now I'm freaking out because of this.
So I changed the valve cover gasket and the intake surge tank gasket.
I also cleaned the surge tank with some brake clean since it was coated by oil, same with the throttle body and the intake manifold, then plugged the intake to avoid things falling in.
After putting everything back together, I connected the bat and went to start it.
The first turns sounded heavy but I thought that maybe it was just that everything in the car was running at the same time. After that it cranked pretty fast and without noises but NO start, didn't even try.
I thought that maybe the oil valves and fuel lines needed to get some flow so I kept trying.
When it finally started it ran very rough for a few seconds but it cleared up and everything was normal, until CEL came on, said CHECK VSC, car started idling rough and A LOT of white smoke came out the exhaust. A LOT.
Stopped the car freaking out. Tried again a few mins later, starts with no CEL, goes bad and start smoking in a few seconds. I have no clue of what could've gone wrong.
Another concern is that I might have overtightened the fuel line that goes to the back of the surge tank, felt pretty soft, what does that do? Also the washer goes between the line and the intake or with the bolt? Could not find it in the manual.
It's very weird that it doesn't smoke from the beginning, it's almost like a head gasket or something.
I appreciate any help, I'm pretty f** scared since it's not my car. Thanks.
So I changed the valve cover gasket and the intake surge tank gasket.
I also cleaned the surge tank with some brake clean since it was coated by oil, same with the throttle body and the intake manifold, then plugged the intake to avoid things falling in.
After putting everything back together, I connected the bat and went to start it.
The first turns sounded heavy but I thought that maybe it was just that everything in the car was running at the same time. After that it cranked pretty fast and without noises but NO start, didn't even try.
I thought that maybe the oil valves and fuel lines needed to get some flow so I kept trying.
When it finally started it ran very rough for a few seconds but it cleared up and everything was normal, until CEL came on, said CHECK VSC, car started idling rough and A LOT of white smoke came out the exhaust. A LOT.
Stopped the car freaking out. Tried again a few mins later, starts with no CEL, goes bad and start smoking in a few seconds. I have no clue of what could've gone wrong.
Another concern is that I might have overtightened the fuel line that goes to the back of the surge tank, felt pretty soft, what does that do? Also the washer goes between the line and the intake or with the bolt? Could not find it in the manual.
It's very weird that it doesn't smoke from the beginning, it's almost like a head gasket or something.
I appreciate any help, I'm pretty f** scared since it's not my car. Thanks.
03-24-16, 03:26 PM
#2
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Would it make sense that it's the cold start injector the problem? I think I might have overtightened the bolt that connects the fuel line to it, so either stretched the bolt, twisted the injector, something like that and now it just leaks in?
03-25-16, 05:57 AM
#5
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yep, you were right. It seems that the oil that washed down the intake was smoking a lot when the engineering was getting hot.
What was weird to me was that the misfiring wasn't improving after burning it. But apparently the ECU disables cylinders after repeated misfiring.
Anyway, burned everything away and now it runs just fine. Even smoother than before I must say. The throttle body was pretty sticky so probably it was having a bad time doing small corrections.
I've been working on this car after work for three days so I've become very tired haha, I wasn't thinking straight. Luckily everything else looks fine, no leaks, no codes (after clearing the misfiring ones) and it runs great.
The banjo bolt of the cold start injector is fine after all, just missing an aluminum washer from the last guy that worked on it, that's why it was so tight.
Thank you all!
What was weird to me was that the misfiring wasn't improving after burning it. But apparently the ECU disables cylinders after repeated misfiring.
Anyway, burned everything away and now it runs just fine. Even smoother than before I must say. The throttle body was pretty sticky so probably it was having a bad time doing small corrections.
I've been working on this car after work for three days so I've become very tired haha, I wasn't thinking straight. Luckily everything else looks fine, no leaks, no codes (after clearing the misfiring ones) and it runs great.
The banjo bolt of the cold start injector is fine after all, just missing an aluminum washer from the last guy that worked on it, that's why it was so tight.
Thank you all!
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
KING
ES - 1st to 4th Gen (1990-2006)
12
04-01-20 08:56 AM