Yea I feel like its reasonable to go months if not years with it leaking as long as you are keeping an eye on the coolant level.
DIY Coolant Valley Leak Repair
- Thread starter jmanscotch
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Acrad
GOLD Star
Yeah… I know I could have gone a lot longer.. just figured I’ll get it fixed and put behind me. I always expected this at some point and timing is better now than some times of the year. An easy cleanup too.. no clips busted anywhere. I did throw the parts cannon at it but I could have easily done with the minimal needed parts.
Planning to spend some time tomorrow with a final cleanup of surfaces and re-seal with 103 and the 3rd party gasket on Sunday. I did some misc things today like a few coolant hoses I replaced, intake manifold gaskets, cleaned up the coolant pipe passage on engine, brass wire brushed off the plate screws as they still had a lot of FIPG on them.
I'm using a new plate, coolant tube, knock sensor harness, the two other coolant hoses listed in thread, PCV assembly and a new valve.
Planning to spend some time tomorrow with a final cleanup of surfaces and re-seal with 103 and the 3rd party gasket on Sunday. I did some misc things today like a few coolant hoses I replaced, intake manifold gaskets, cleaned up the coolant pipe passage on engine, brass wire brushed off the plate screws as they still had a lot of FIPG on them.
I'm using a new plate, coolant tube, knock sensor harness, the two other coolant hoses listed in thread, PCV assembly and a new valve.
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That's what I'm talking about. Mine was the same...little to no adhesion to the engine side. When I began prepping the valley plate, there were spots I noticed while removing that small bead didn't seem to have much bond either. Just an observation.
Acrad
GOLD Star
@Thed351W - I picked up a really small sample container of this off eBay. I plan to use… seemed to work fine putting new tube & O-Ring in this morning in engine block side.
The best, bar-none, lubricant for coolant seals is this stuff.
MOLYKOTE® 33 Medium Extreme Low Temperature Grease
NLGI Grade 2 - Silicone-based grease with a base oil viscosity of 76 cSt at 40°C, lithium-thickened, with no solid lubricants.www.dupont.com
Primarily, it's a lubricant designed to not swell the o-rings. It's what I use to install cylinder liners in diesel engines. If you can't find some, or don't want to pay for it, then soapy water works pretty well. You generally want to avoid using petroleum-based lubricants on coolant seals due to the swelling they cause.
It kind of sucks as a lubricant for other uses, but it's amazing for coolant seals.
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Acrad
GOLD Star
Coolant leak test probably Tuesday... I need to close off what appears to be 4 tubes/hoses coolant could leak out during test.
It will suck if I messed up somewhere… but a lot less work to fix at this stage then full teardown again.
Also writing on one of the passenger side intakes...
It will suck if I messed up somewhere… but a lot less work to fix at this stage then full teardown again.
Also writing on one of the passenger side intakes...
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Acrad
GOLD Star
No leaks... I guess we'll see how it holds up running and after many heat cycles. Everything below intake reinstalled... gonna try to finish up in day or two..
and hoping for the best!
That’s awesome. Nice work!
Acrad
GOLD Star
Motor is now buttoned up best I can tell minus any of the beauty covers. Coolant fill and bleed tomorrow..I know there will likely be an initial stall or two.
Leaving that foam out sure makes the valley easy to access and observe for leaks.
Leaving that foam out sure makes the valley easy to access and observe for leaks.
I'm sure it will hold better than the factory bead did.
I apologize if you've already answered this question, but what FIPG did you use?
1282B?
Acrad
GOLD Star
I may get some heat for this but gasket vendor recommended basically the lightest smear or razor level thin of Permatex High Temp Gray RTV on both sides of the gasket.
I don't do a lot with this kind of repair so I guess time will tell. After setting the plate down I criss cross torqued to around 5 ft-lbs, then about 45 minutes 8 ft-lbs followed by 15 at around an hour and 15 minutes. Temps in garage were like 40-45 degrees. I'll keep checking with camera if something turns up. I could do job a lot quicker next time like most state.
No surprises on start this morning... just a little extended cranked time and fired up without a stall and ran fine. No warning lights either.
Now I need to drive some to get trust in the repair.
I don't do a lot with this kind of repair so I guess time will tell. After setting the plate down I criss cross torqued to around 5 ft-lbs, then about 45 minutes 8 ft-lbs followed by 15 at around an hour and 15 minutes. Temps in garage were like 40-45 degrees. I'll keep checking with camera if something turns up. I could do job a lot quicker next time like most state.
No surprises on start this morning... just a little extended cranked time and fired up without a stall and ran fine. No warning lights either.
Now I need to drive some to get trust in the repair.
If your garage was warmer, you probably wouldn't have to had to wait so long between torques, so yea, I guess if you had to do it again, it'd be nice if it was Summer!
If Permatex is a silicone based material, I've done studies for a company I worked for on the best conditions for curing silicone. The results were warm and humid. And they (the company I was at) was wondering why it took so long to cure their silicone sub-assemblies in a clean room. Well, clean rooms (at least for med devices) are kept very cool and dry.
Acrad
GOLD Star
I did have a small portable heater running in engine area during torque period and then waited over 48 hours before I added any coolant.
It was an extremely fine/razor thin application so I would think that did help with speeding up cure time. Test strips outside the engine were very setup even after 24 hours but of course exposed to far more of the elements.
I was a little concerned about doing this but since this was already an outlier repair using a gasket I moved forward with what vendor recommend.
It was an extremely fine/razor thin application so I would think that did help with speeding up cure time. Test strips outside the engine were very setup even after 24 hours but of course exposed to far more of the elements.
I was a little concerned about doing this but since this was already an outlier repair using a gasket I moved forward with what vendor recommend.
I've had to do similar on the 5M-GE in my MKII Supra. The cam tower would often develop oil leaks. The gasket in between was metal so you reuse by peeling off the old sealant and laying a very thin coat of RTV on both sides, letting it cure overnight before installation. I only remember having to do it once...so hopefully you'll have the same luck.
@Arcad, how butt clenching was the coolant pipe/o-ring/engine/CVP install? There's definitely some less than ideal entry angles associated w/ that! Those o-rings give me nightmares lol. I would think advantage for the gasket approach here, as there's less "smearing" concerns?
Acrad
GOLD Star
Let's put it this way.. I don't parachute out of planes but felt like I had to psych myself up at the same level when I committed to moving forward with the plate install in the minutes ahead. 
I think as long as O-rings are slightly lubed (only lubed exterior face of O-Rings) and both sides in engine and plate have some lubrication you won't have any issues with that part. I couldn't replicate in my old tube and plate rolling that O-Ring. I have to wonder if some may still had some grit in each end that gasket snagged on.
On another note.. I failed to put the rear left manifold bolt into the hole before mounting the intake. To ensure I didn't drop bolt I tied a small piece of dental floss on it in case it dropped and then just used one of those reach tools with magnet piece removed on the end to place the bolt in that hole. It took 5-10 minutes to get it in there and then tightened up with that previously mentioned 3/16 hex tool
I think as long as O-rings are slightly lubed (only lubed exterior face of O-Rings) and both sides in engine and plate have some lubrication you won't have any issues with that part. I couldn't replicate in my old tube and plate rolling that O-Ring. I have to wonder if some may still had some grit in each end that gasket snagged on.
On another note.. I failed to put the rear left manifold bolt into the hole before mounting the intake. To ensure I didn't drop bolt I tied a small piece of dental floss on it in case it dropped and then just used one of those reach tools with magnet piece removed on the end to place the bolt in that hole. It took 5-10 minutes to get it in there and then tightened up with that previously mentioned 3/16 hex tool
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Acrad
GOLD Star
This has been stated before... disconnect the fuel lines and just remove the intake with them attached. It will make that step easier. I'll leave it it up to everyone whether they want to break the passenger side wiring harness clamp. I painstakingly spent the time to remove the bolt. That bolt and clamp piece attached to intake did not go back on during reinstall. I did clip the driver side harness back onto intake as I didn't find that one that difficult to unclip. Easy to replace if you do break it though. Fuel lines re-attach really easy as well.
I also had an old parts container I numbered and documented where everything went. If screws or bolts could be left in extracted part I put them back in. Only thing left once done were the old parts and the bolt/clamp from the intake gasket passenger side...nothing leftover.
As always recommended.. Take lots of pictures... this will help if you ever lose track of hose routing or even the orientation of the knock sensors.
If you think you might drop a bolt on install/reinstall.. leverage magnets, pickup tools or even some tape holding bolt to socket
I also had an old parts container I numbered and documented where everything went. If screws or bolts could be left in extracted part I put them back in. Only thing left once done were the old parts and the bolt/clamp from the intake gasket passenger side...nothing leftover.
As always recommended.. Take lots of pictures... this will help if you ever lose track of hose routing or even the orientation of the knock sensors.
If you think you might drop a bolt on install/reinstall.. leverage magnets, pickup tools or even some tape holding bolt to socket
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I wondered about this detail. Lubing the entire o-ring vs just the outside surface may be a subtle but important anti-rolling step.Let's put it this way.. I don't parachute out of planes but felt like I had to psych myself up at the same level when I committed to moving forward with the plate install in the minutes ahead.
I think as long as O-rings are slightly lubed (only lubed exterior face of O-Rings) and both sides in engine and plate have some lubrication you won't have any issues with that part. I couldn't replicate in my old tube and plate rolling that O-Ring. I have to wonder if some may still had some grit in each end that gasket snagged on.
On another note.. I failed to put the rear left manifold bolt into the hole before mounting the intake. To ensure I didn't drop bolt I tied a small piece of dental floss on it in case it dropped and then just used one of those reach tools with magnet piece removed on the end to place the bolt in that hole. It took 5-10 minutes to get it in there and then tightened up with that previously mentioned 3/16 hex tool
Acrad
GOLD Star
Just remember you can test for leaks before reinstalling everything... there will be three connections up front (it will be obvious at the time) you have to block off. I used hose clamps and some other vinyl tubing. As seen in pic I leveraged some vinyl tubing in that short hose (4th connection) on plate that goes to EGR cooler. I then drained off excess coolant to get below the level of blocked off lines once I was confident all was sealed.
This is where small children, with their small hands come in handy!
Have any kids/grandkids Acad??