Stang0ne50

Hey guys I hope I can use this thread for my general questions during my rebuild.
Im working on a 2001 f150 4.2 v6. It is leaking everywhere. Its been dripping oil from what I thought was maybe the oil pan for over a year. Then the water pump started leaking and after looking around I am not sure if the oil is coming from the oil pan. The valve covers appear to be covered in oil too. The top of the lower intake is also covered in oil all around the injectors and pretty much everywhere.
So I took the truck to a local mechanic looking for advice. He told me he didnt think it was the oil pan and that I should replace the intake and valve cover gaskets. My water pump also just started leaking so that gasket needs to be replaced.
From here I put it in the garage and started taking it apart...
So far the upper plenum and spacer seem ok, no sign of damage to the gaskets. Once I get the fuel rails off Ill be able to take off the lower manifold and check its gasket.
The first problem I encountered was when taking off the upper manifold one of the bolts just kept spinning on me. Eventually I got it out but the sleeve which the bolt screws into became loose and it now spins within its housing so if I try to tighten the bolt it will spin endlessly.
What can I do about this? Can I pull the sleeve out and slap some epoxy on it then press it back in?

EDIT:Here is a current list of everything that I have done and will be done during this project...
-Lower Intake, spacer and upper plenum gaskets
-Intake bolt grommets
-Intake outlet tube
-Intake vacuum bushings
-Valve cover gaskets
-Valve cover bolt grommets
-PCV valve and grommet
-New water pump and gasket
-Water pump bypass pipe
-New thermostat and gasket
-New drive belt
-oil change and filter
-coolant flush
-new swaybar endlinks(mine are missing apparently)
-new ac compressor clutch
-spark plugs
-spark plug wires
-power steering pulley

Other threads related to this project...
https://www.f150forum.com/f6/valve-c...e-leak-419737/
https://www.f150forum.com/f6/milky-c...causes-419251/
Any and all help or advice is much appreciated, thanks guys.

Stang0ne50

I just wanted to add some pics to show you guys what Im working on.
Here is the manifold with the bolt sleeve issue. You can see the sleeve on the right coming out...

Couple pics of all the crud. Its built up pretty bad around the head passages. The insides of the head passages are totally caked up and it looks like tar in all of them. Im not going to be able to do anything about that though. Ill just put a new intake gasket. It ran like that for this long so I hope it should be ok.


Here are the manifold gaskets. NO signs of damage? Yet they are covered in oil.

white89gt

There is a member on here that is good with the 4.2 that I am sure will chime in when they are on again. I haven't seen him on today.

Love your username, BTW

BareBonesXL

I have a 4.2 but I'm not the guy. I do know inserts and plastics though. You should be able to remove that brass insert, clean the hole and insert out well, then epoxy the insert back in, as you proposed. Do a test torquing before assembling to be sure it will hold. Or. of course, you could hit the wrecking yard and find a replacement. It's a low torque value bolt though, so epoxy should work.

While you have it all disassembled you should consider replacing your isolator bolts. They're one of those guaranteed to fail eventually parts. Mine failed at under 75,000 miles.

Stang0ne50

Hey thanks, Yea thats probably what I will do then. Its only 89 inch pounds. I dont know what those bolts are and havent seen them unless there the ones stuck in the plenum but I will check them out. The lower manifold bolts came out with no issues surprisingly and seem in good shape.
I dont know if I mentioned but this truck has 180,000 miles on it and its pretty beat up so Im not lookin for it to be perfect. I just want to try to fix these leaks and get it running again. It ran ok before the water pump started leaking, even with the small oil leak.

BareBonesXL

They're the ones stuck in the plenum. Search PO171 and PO174 codes and you'll find stories. They just knock out easily with a drift, or ratchet extension or socket. About $55 on eBay, if I recall right, for Ford parts. If yours have a green grommet they've already been replaced. You can knock one out to see, or see it from the bottom if it's not too greasy..

kd4gij

I have a 99 4.2. But it is an all aluminum plenum . But I agree epoxy should fix the sleeve and get new isolator bolts.

white89gt

There's the man right there ^^^^

Stang0ne50

Ok thanks guys I will go with the epoxy for the sleeve.
Another problem I have is the outlet pipe snapped off the lower intake. I barely touched it so it was ready to go. The problem is the pipe is still stuck in the manifold.
I saw a video where a guy used a blind hole/bearing puller to remove sleeves from holes. He then got a new pipe and used epoxy and an open end wrench that fit the pipe to drive it into the hole. Does this sound like a solid fix to you guys? Does anyone know how this pipe is installed from the factory? Is it just pressed in dry?

I noticed those lower intake gaskets had no sealant at all except in the 4 corners where the gaskets meet. I thought sealant should be used on the small cross over pieces as well.

Also for the valve cover gaskets..are these put on dry as well? I havent taken off the valve covers yet. Im thinking i may do the lower manifold then the driver side valve cover , then go back to the passenger side because theres just a ton of wires in the way.

white89gt

Could you post the video?