djamps

You could disconnect the PCV and pump it in thru that hose. Make sure to seal up the TB with a latex glove, ect.

cobalt91

Have you checked that stamped sheet metal plate on top of the throttle body? Pirate air may be leaking past this.

DK Audio

Yes, the metal plate that if you remove you see like 8 tiny holes going into the throttle body? Yes, that is actually the plate I made my own rubber gasket for.

Gdwrench35

I feel it necessary to mention again, if your cat's were plugged and causing a problem, you would get RICH codes, not LEAN codes which is what your getting. If a plugged up cat were the culprit, which its not, you could simply remove the upstream oxygen sensor from the pipe and start the car and your misfires would go away.

A plugged cat won't let the exhaust gas escape correctly, building pressure in between the cat and the cylinder head. Removing the O2 will give the exhaust gas a place to escape and allow the car to run somewhat normally, although very loud. A plugged cat will show the upstream O2 an overly rich condition from the built up exhaust gas. Since your car is setting lean codes, then the cat would be the least likely culprit.

Again, your sucking air, somewhere on the driver bank. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. The smoke test will likely show you where the leak is unless its a failing vsv, then the smoke wont be visible.

The plate you mentioned would effect both banks equally so that likely wont be the issue either. Look for something isolated to the driver bank.

aptoslexus

Take a water bottle and spray it around the intake. If the engine stumbles, you've found your leak.

DK Audio

My PCV spins super easily in the valve cover, is that normal? There was also a little oil in the PCV out tube, that usually means bad, right? Too much flow, stuck open? It also rattles when I shake it.

I blew smoke into the tube that connects to the PCV and didn't see anything. That goes right into the huge intake space though, right?

Just read this online about PCV's...

"At an idle, engine speed is low, around 600 RPM. A relatively small amount of fuel and air travel through the intake at idle speed. If the PCV valve did not regulate air flow, the engine would act like it had a vacuum leak. Too much air flowing into the intake causes the engine to lean out [too much air in relation to the fuel] and misfire. At an idle, the PCV valve restricts air flow, to reduce this problem. At high manifold vacuum [idle], a spring loaded valve is drawn up and partially restricts flow to the crankcase. "

Gdwrench35

If the valve rattles when you shake it, its good. The minor amount of oil is normal. I would not suspect this as your issue. It would affect both banks the same. You can verify that its not the issue by simply pinching off the vacuum line from the PCV valve and run the engine. If it were causing the problem, the miss should go away with the line pinched off. Keep digging, you'll get there.

Gdwrench35

Aptoslexus stated some good advice. Spray water around the intake area with the engine running and see if it stumbles. I usually use a flammable spray and watch for an RPM increase but I guess the water would be a bit safer.

DK Audio

My neighbor who's a mechanic at a Ford dealer came over. We got the car to react with brake cleaner (didn't have carb on hand). It started hissing loud too. It seems to be under the intake, great! I had my starter replaced earlier in the year, I have a 125cc scooter so have been using that most of the summer. I don't know if I should bring it back to him or what. How hard is it to pull off the intake? Are there hoses running under there? My worry is it might be the lower intake gaskets or something. He had a nice reader too, said both banks are really lean, 29% I think it was. He said this leak should definitely be the cause. Not sure what to do now, this seems pretty major to get to.

dicer

Yeah I'm surprised supposed real mechanics have no idea of how to keep those gaskets in place when installing the intake. It isn't a fun deal to remove the intake, lots of wires to disconnect and hoses. If they are old and crusty it makes the job much more difficult.

Gdwrench35

What likely happened is that they replaced your starter but re used the intake gaskets. Look at your bill and see if they charged you for the gaskets. If not, I'd take it back to them and point out that they did it wrong.

The intake job is pretty easy if your mechanically inclined. It usually takes me under 2 hours to pull the intake and replace the starter.

Might be worth checking the torque on the bolts (for the intake manifold). See if they are loose. Just like any profession, there are a lot of bad mechanics out there. Sometimes it can be hard to find a good one.

I would agree 100%.

And just because I'm a smart alick, I'd like to point out

This was my first post on your thread. Now that you've seen data, we know that both banks were in fact running lean, but bank 2 wasn't yet lean enough to flag a code. Still pinned the correct suspect though.

DK Audio

Intake gaskets for $68 are on the bill. I'm wondering if there is a vacuum line under the intake that slipped off or something. Is there a bolt pattern when putting on the intake? You know the torque? I'm not finding much online for some reason. I may start digging into this today, ugh, not looking forward to this.

My neighbor said the same thing, bank 2 just didn't start throwing codes yet but the problem was across all cylinders.

Gdwrench35

Your neighbor sounds like a pretty smart guy

I don't know the specific torque from memory and I can't access the service programs from home. I'll be back at work tomorrow and can look them up for you then. I would guess in the 20 ftlb range.

The sequence is pretty simple and somewhat universal. Start at the inside and work your way out in a crisscross pattern.

Also check the seal for your throttle body. A lot of people take this off for intake R&R but its not necessary. For this reason, the intake gasket set usually doesn't come with a t. body gasket. It gets re used and leaks a short time after.

I don't recall there being that many vacuum hoses under the intake. EVAP stuff maybe. I'll look at that stuff when I get to work too.

Did your neighbor happen to look at MAF data? Now that we know its effecting both banks, I'd like to know what the gram per second reading is. I'd also like to know load % at idle and what the difference is cold to warm.

DK Audio

I left a voicemail for my mechanic who did the starter, hope he doesn't take it the wrong way. I was going to start it today myself but thought I'd try him first, see what he has to say at least.

I found the torque for the intake manifold , 13 foot pounds.

I wonder what it could be under there then, like I said the sucking got pretty dang loud after a while. We checked the throttle body with the spray many times, I'm pretty certain that gasket is good.

As far as the MAF he just said it is responding, not sure about the details though.

dicer

I'd like to see that 2 hour deal. If it was a brand new car then maybe, still since we are talking LS I'd like to see how you get to those starter bolts and get them out so fast. Especially with the wires and clearance that is next to nothing. It looks like to drop the trans down enough the exhaust has to be fooled with.
If the gaskets aren't torn and went back in the same spot, it would probably be fine, I'm not saying to do it.