After a HG replacement, I got the engine back together and everything seemed fine, except a vacuum leak near the intake and a whining sound now coming from the VVTi cam.. Any idea's on what I need to look for here?

 

are you completely sure its the VVTI gear? there are lots of other things in the area to isolate first... I would take the serpentine belt off first and start and run the car and see if the noise goes away or changes... I would suspect power steering pump or similar before the vvti gear - it is a pretty simple piece and I've never seen nor heard of one making any noise...

 

You maybe right I know when I slightly turned the steering wheel she groaned bad, I will find out tomorrow if its not raining and see how it goes, but its weird cause the car made no sound period prior to tear down, now after the HG replacement its not sounding good

 

if power steering pump was removed , u must bleed it by turning side to side and filling while engine running.

 

^^ This.

Put the front wheels up in the air and turn from all the way left to all the way right over and over again with the car running and add fluid if needed. If it's the pump itself making the noise you may have starved it of fluid at startup and burned it out. If it's the rack then you just have air in the system and need to get it out.

 

Yep, I was to busy freaking out i did something wrong, I just let it run turn the wheels back and forth she's as quiet as a mouse..