Ok, I got my new injector in today and all went well I thought. I followed the tutorial on here and everything went smooth(if 8 hour's under a hood can be smooth). Now it is making a REALLY LOUD whistle noise? My guess would be one of the manifold gaskets? I torqued all bolts to 15 ft lbs, I bought the gaskets from Brian and they seemed fine, anybody got any ideas? I had a heck of a time getting the old gasket off and actually did not get it "totally" removed but it was all very smooth. I would say I got 98% of it off and thought that it looked good enough to put back on. Anybody else had this?

 

i hate those stupid intake gaskets... they bake onto the aluminum half the time, leading to a very intimate removal session, involving much cursing.

it could be one of the gaskets, but you might also have broken a vac line somewhere. they tend to get old and brittle so when you take the IM off sometimes they break or crack without you noticing. it's easy to forget the 2 under the throttle body, and there's another one between the TB and IACV, then the brake booster hose, one for the FPR, and one more back by the throttle cable holder bracket for the heater shutoff valve. plus the ones for the iacv and some sort of vac hose on the inboard top port of the side of the IACV... i'm doing injectors too (waiting on pintle caps) so while my intake is off i'm replacing my heater hoses and all my vacuum lines.. i'm overdue for it anyways (ask Greeny how we know this )

 

I went over all of those vac lines and they all are connected and not damaged, this whistle is REALLY loud and it seems to run a little rough at low idle. I hate the thought of tearing this down again and replacing those gaskets especially after it went so smooth.

 

well it definitely sounds like you have an intake leak. How bout the thick breather hoses and pcv hose?

you can try spraying starter fluid around the intake and see if any particular location that you spray makes the car do something (i guess the engine will cough or something, dunno, never tried it). anyhow, that helps you find exactly where the leak is.

 

I will get starter fluid and try this, I tried to listen but it seems like it is coming from everywhere.

 

yea that's the problem with intake leaks, sometimes your ears deceive you when you're trying to pinpoint their location. Heck i had a vac leak a while back and sound didn't help at all. i just physically checked and found the missing hose (yea.. it was straight-up missing haha.)

 

Is this a common problem? I am starting to wonder if I damaged the intake or something, you would not believe how loud this whining whistle is. I used some sand paper and razor scraper on both pieces trying to get that stupid baked on gasket off, I hope I didnt gouge it and didn't notice it.

I see maximan1313 may have same problem http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...ld-gasket.html

 

well last time when we did my engine swap, the new engine didn't have an intake at all, so we had to take the intake from my old engine and put it on my new one. For the upper manifold, we actually cheated... instead of buying that gasket we just used RTV and let it seal itself up. We let it sit for a few hours then started the car. It seemed to work fine. If you have any gouges in your surfaces it might be good to use some RTV, because that will help fill in any imperfections. I just don't think getting rtv-happy is 'officially recommended' tho.

 

If I end up replacing the gaskets AGAIN do you guys think I should put any RTV sealent on the new ones? I really do not want to have to do this 3 times

 

don't use RTV, do use "Indian Head" Shellac

 

What does it do that Ultra Black doesn't?

Use it with new gasket or can I reuse ones I just put on?

I put a timing belt on this car two years ago and replaced rear exhaust manifolfd along with 3 broken studs last year and never had any problems and now this.... 275k to be expected....

 

indian head shellac is used with the new gaskets to seal imperfections in the metal that would otherwise cause leaks.
http://www.permatex.com/documents/td...tive/20539.pdf

 

Well I sprayed starting fluid around the intake and sure enough just to the right of #2 it shreaked louder when I hit that area, I guess I am changing out gaskets and cleaning the heck out of intake AGAIN..I will do a better job on making sure all of the old gasket fibers are gone this time.. Thanks for the tips guys.

Hey Brian, where can you buy that Indian head Shelac at? do stores like Autozone and Advance carry it? I don't remeber ever seeing that stuff on the shelf.

 

not all part stores have it. I have had to special order it every time I was asked for it.

 

I would recheck the bolts and tighten them down a bit more before tearing it apart again. you may be able to get away with that.

 

Yea, tried that..I torqued them up to 20 and no change. I ran my finger around the area that made a dif noise when I sprayed it but could not make a change by trying to seal it off, I thought if I could find it I would just smear a little sealer on it but no luck. I am going to keep looking at it because it just makes no sense with new gaskets this thing leaking like it is. Everytime I run it my neighbors look at me funny.

 

the problem I had with my gasket is I thought the old one was still in good enough condition to put it back on..I learned from that mistake, I knew better anyways.

My whistling had happened once the motor got hot. So the gasket had a very slight crack in it and I found it by spraying some crap around. The crack was almost on the backside of the intake, luckily on the right side by the TB so it was still acessible for me to spray,

...if your gasket didnt seat right or you didn't clean off both surfaces well enough, there could be dirt, or old gasket creating a very tiny gap which is why it whistles.

 

also what I did when I put a new gasket on, was put a very very small, but solid, line of gasket maker on both side of the gasket just to ensure an air tight seal. supposively you don't need to do this, but I think it might help you... did you maybe scratch the surfaces when you took off the old gasket?? Also make sure your torqing the bolts in the proper order and all are the same torque lbs. I would tight all to about 5lbs then go back through the same order and tighten down to specs, then go over all once again in the same order just to make sure tightening others down didnt losen others up.


worse comes to worse, take it to a trusted mechanic you have, and see if they can smoke test it to find a leak if all else fails...Good luck

VE or VG btw?? mine was VE

 

VG, I followed FSM torque sequence and did like you said I went around in order and took them up about 5lbs at a time. I know I did not get all the old gasket off so I guess I deserve it, I was running out of daylight and rushed the job and I know better. I have had this car for 5 years now and have put over 100k of the 270k on it myself and have done all the repairs myself but this time I will pay for my mistakes.

 

I didnt read the last 2 lines of your first post, dumb me, anyways. Its definately a possibility then that air is getting sucked in through that point. It only takes a dirt spec sized hole for it to leak. I think its safe to use brake parts cleaner to wipe what dirt, etc you can off the surfaces.

as far as getting old gaskets off, without scratching the surfaces, is a difficult task. If I was in your position I would remove the intake and inspect the new gasket you put on there...possible you can still use it, though its reccomend you put a new one in there everytime you take it off. If it looks like new still and isn't bent or damaged in anyway, I would think you would be ok re-using it, but I would put a small bead of rtv high temp gasket maker around all of the port holes and bolt holes on both sides of the gasket.

If you decide to do this, which like I said, IS NOT the reccomended way of doing it. You should just tighten all the bolts down to 5lbs torque in the proper order...Let it sit for 1-2hours so the rtv can dry a bit. then torque it to spec. this will help ensure a better seal. Don't use too much rtv because it will spread out when you torque down the intake plenum and you dont want any to spread out on the inside and obstruct air flow(although i don't think it would hurt much if a tad bit was hangin over the edge inside).

before doing all that again though, definately be 100% sure you don't have an unhooked hose or a cracked hose..or maybe a hose clamp not on...maybe a hose clamp is worn out and not clamping the hose enough allowing air through.

also, does it do this whistle when its cold, and warmed up? Did you take the throttle body off?



PS: when I did my intake gasket the 2nd time to fix my whistle...I used a paint scrapper very very carefully and slowly to help get gasket off, although not much stuck on mine thankfully. Also I don't reccomend this because its a high risk to scratch the mating surfaces. luckily nothing happened with mine, and I have been whistle free since.

 

I did it cold and when warmed up, I took the manifold off today and cleaned all the old gasket off, there are a few places I nicked the lower manifold with razor scraper but nothing serious. I bought Permatex Gasket Remover and BOY DID IT MAKE IT EASY!, you just spray it on wait 10 minutes and the baked on gasket pealed right off just like paint stripper on furniture. The old gasket looks like new but I am not reusing it I will however be puting a small bead of red or black permatex on it or that stuff Brian said to use Indian Head Shellac if I can find it along with a new gasket.

Boy the first time I did this it took me like 4 hours just to get the manifold off, this time I had it off in 1/2 hour. Everything was loose and fresh in my mind. I will let you know how I make out later in the week after I get new gaskets along with the brake booster hose and the one that runs from valve pan cover to intake they are really brittle and I am going to replace them what sucks is I will have to order these and wait 3-4 days to get them.

 

i'm surprised the permatex gasket remover stuff worked... we tried to use it for my brother's oil pump gasket and it didn't do jack squat. unless you're just talking about the gasket you just put on, in which case, it shouldn't have been hard to take off anyhow.. it takes a few heat cycles for them to bake on.

 

small bead is small... like 1/16th, don't over due it. but it must be a continuous bead. Use that indian head stuff if you can get your hands on it. if not i don't see why rtv wouldnt work.

were you getting the new gasket off or, after you pulled the new gasket off(assuming it wasn't stuck on yet) were you able to remove the original gasket you couldn't the first time around?

the more you do it the faster you can do it. thats the nice thing about working on your car yourself. you learn it. you save lots of money.

 

Well I put the new gasket on and whistle is gone, no sealant or shellac just a new gasket. One thing I noticed is that the gasket I got from the dealership had a rubber seal all the way around it? I had done a better job than I thought of getting the old gasket off there was VERY little left on that I had to remove but I guess it only takes a little.
Thanks guys for all you helpfull hints I really appreciate it.