Well I had a leaking valve cover gasket on my new to me 96 F150 with the 4.9 I6. No problem, only thing really looked to be a pain in the arss was the egr tube running through the openings of the plenum (why would they do that?). Well it was after work and I was tired so I did not remove the tube. I unbolted the plenum and was able to lift it a couple of inches and turn it a little, then suspended it from the hood with some wire. I now had plenty of room for the task at hand. I picked up a new plenum seal and egr seal since I was taking then apart also. Everything going smooth as a babies butt except I could not see the mating surfaces of the plenum but a ran my hand along the surface and it felt smooth and clean so I put the new seal and bolt everything back up. Go to start the truck up and she fire right up. But... she is now got a pretty rough idle. No biggie, I noticed some of the vacuum line were pretty rough so I figure I probably split or cracked one. Run to the store and grabbed some new ones and replaced them. Start it up and darn, same thing. I am checking everything, did I forget a plug, was there a line under the manifold I can't see? Well I grab some brake cleaner and start spraying different areas and boom the idle jumps when I spray under the intake. Mind you it is now about 11pm and I have to get up for work and 530am. I am trying to reach as far under the intake manifold to feel if one of the vacuum lines came apart and my arm goes against the plenum seal and it sucks the skin right to it. Take it all back apart and found a little piece of old seal still stuck to the mating surface (I would of sworn I touched every square millimeter of the surfaces but obviously not). So take it all back apart, clean it up and put it all back together. She then fires up and runs show room new so lesson learned, take your time, do it right or DO IT TWICE. Oh well, it was a rough day at work but you live and learn.

Marc

 

Marccc.

I can relate to that. Way back when I had a '79 Mustang with 2.3L four and I replaced the cam belt (several times). It turned out I had an issue with getting the cam timing set and just got it a hurry so I ended up doing it again to get it right. Lessons learned for sure. Still learning.