The tail of this round of preventative maintenance begins with oil spots in the driveway. I could tell from the signs of the leak that I should start with the valve cover gasket. The valve cover gasket maintenance led me down the, "may as well while you're in there" chain. Valve cover gasket triggered the PHH. The PHH and "no start" issue triggered the starter remove & replace. The starter remove and replace triggered the battery cable replacement, but wait...nature had a different plan.
In getting ready for this job, I developed the illusive "no start" condition in 1 of every 30-40 starts. After reading several threads on this, I decided to replace the starter with a reman. from cdan. On the same call to cdan, I ordered all the items necessary for the valve cover job: valve cover gasket, spark plugs (may as well while I'm there), spark plug gaskets, No. 1 & No. 2 by-pass hoses for the throttle body, PCV grommet. PCV valve and other lines had been replaced 12 months ago, so I was good there. A run to the local Napa dealer left me flush with 2 ft. of vacuum line and 2 ft. of 5/8" and 1/2" of Napa's premium heater hose. I already had a PHH kit from Brett at 1fzfephh.com , so I thought I'd be ready with all the necessary bits.
I thought I'd have a few hours on a few weekends to knock this work out, fitting the job in where I could squeeze in the time. After all, winter has been mild, so I don't need to worry about leaving the LX jacked up taking up both parking spots in the garage. Right? Wrong. Winter storm warning for the greater Philadelphia area - 8-14 inches expected. 8-14 inches? Oh crap, the LX is torn apart....
So, rather than taking a couple of extra weekends a couple of hours at a time to change out even more items like battery cables from Urban Cruisers, and all the 90 degree heater hoses at the firewall (that would require another call to cdan), it became a mission of, "I gotta have my capable snow beast back on the road by the end of today."
Now to get off of chat and onto tech, here are my thoughts and observations from the job: (these comments assume that you have read many threads on these repairs to become familiar with the job at hand.)
PHH
Before and after shots of the PHH.
The top side hoses looked and felt like they were in great shape...which leads me to this rule of thumb: your topside hoses are no indicator of the condition of the PHH.
Items that make this job easier / do-able:
Removing the valve cover makes it easier to access the lower bolt on the down pipe. One of those ratcheting gear wrenches (12mm) is a must have for this bolt.
A dremel with a cutting wheel makes it easy to remove the inboard clamp.
Dropping the starter, loosening the brake line bracket, and removing the trans. dip stick tub makes the PHH "more accessible."
Throttle body
Take pictures of the adjustments before you remove the cables.
You may as well replace the No. 1 bypass hose since changing this will feel like a walk in the park compared to the PHH.
Valve cover gasket
I used a very small amount of gasket tack in the small radius bends to keep the gasket from wandering out.
The 13 bolts are torqued to 9 ft-lbs...not 12 ft-lbs. like I found quoted elsewhere on mud. Just as a point of interest, I used the torque wrench to find where the bolts would break loose: around 14 ft-lbs. Side note: possible source of the 12 comes from the same spec. in Newton-meters.
Do not, repeat do not, get over zealous in tapping in the spark plug gaskets. They will crack around the perimeter.
If I would have stuck to the rubber dead blow hammer, I would have been OK. But, I wasn't satisfied with how far in the gaskets were seating. So at 1am, using a 36mm socket to drive them in just a little further seemed like a great idea. Bottom line is that I have to live with this for now...storm was coming, and I had to get the job done. I'll make a point to replace the spark plug gaskets again when I decide (or my LX decides) that it's time for a head gasket. Hopefully, these hairline cracks will not cause any issues.
-KK
In getting ready for this job, I developed the illusive "no start" condition in 1 of every 30-40 starts. After reading several threads on this, I decided to replace the starter with a reman. from cdan. On the same call to cdan, I ordered all the items necessary for the valve cover job: valve cover gasket, spark plugs (may as well while I'm there), spark plug gaskets, No. 1 & No. 2 by-pass hoses for the throttle body, PCV grommet. PCV valve and other lines had been replaced 12 months ago, so I was good there. A run to the local Napa dealer left me flush with 2 ft. of vacuum line and 2 ft. of 5/8" and 1/2" of Napa's premium heater hose. I already had a PHH kit from Brett at 1fzfephh.com , so I thought I'd be ready with all the necessary bits.
I thought I'd have a few hours on a few weekends to knock this work out, fitting the job in where I could squeeze in the time. After all, winter has been mild, so I don't need to worry about leaving the LX jacked up taking up both parking spots in the garage. Right? Wrong. Winter storm warning for the greater Philadelphia area - 8-14 inches expected. 8-14 inches? Oh crap, the LX is torn apart....
So, rather than taking a couple of extra weekends a couple of hours at a time to change out even more items like battery cables from Urban Cruisers, and all the 90 degree heater hoses at the firewall (that would require another call to cdan), it became a mission of, "I gotta have my capable snow beast back on the road by the end of today."
Now to get off of chat and onto tech, here are my thoughts and observations from the job: (these comments assume that you have read many threads on these repairs to become familiar with the job at hand.)
PHH
Before and after shots of the PHH.
The top side hoses looked and felt like they were in great shape...which leads me to this rule of thumb: your topside hoses are no indicator of the condition of the PHH.
Items that make this job easier / do-able:
Removing the valve cover makes it easier to access the lower bolt on the down pipe. One of those ratcheting gear wrenches (12mm) is a must have for this bolt.
A dremel with a cutting wheel makes it easy to remove the inboard clamp.
Dropping the starter, loosening the brake line bracket, and removing the trans. dip stick tub makes the PHH "more accessible."
Throttle body
Take pictures of the adjustments before you remove the cables.
You may as well replace the No. 1 bypass hose since changing this will feel like a walk in the park compared to the PHH.
Valve cover gasket
I used a very small amount of gasket tack in the small radius bends to keep the gasket from wandering out.
The 13 bolts are torqued to 9 ft-lbs...not 12 ft-lbs. like I found quoted elsewhere on mud. Just as a point of interest, I used the torque wrench to find where the bolts would break loose: around 14 ft-lbs. Side note: possible source of the 12 comes from the same spec. in Newton-meters.
Do not, repeat do not, get over zealous in tapping in the spark plug gaskets. They will crack around the perimeter.
If I would have stuck to the rubber dead blow hammer, I would have been OK. But, I wasn't satisfied with how far in the gaskets were seating. So at 1am, using a 36mm socket to drive them in just a little further seemed like a great idea. Bottom line is that I have to live with this for now...storm was coming, and I had to get the job done. I'll make a point to replace the spark plug gaskets again when I decide (or my LX decides) that it's time for a head gasket. Hopefully, these hairline cracks will not cause any issues.
-KK
