Thanks to all the help and info, got it back together. The coil pack relocation took some doing, for some reason it sits about 1/2" higher than usual on my truck and took some minor surgery to the hood to get clearance. Thanks to extinct for the guidance. Sorted out a missing ground cable and we it started right up. Not a bad job all in all. The only real struggle was getting sockets in places that needed a ton of torque. I had to cut one of the ears on the exhaust to get it past the transmission line, but not that big of a deal. Otherwise I think it can be done a day pretty easily. I probably took 10+ hours in 2 hour shifts to get it done. Hopefully its good for another 150k miles. Now the top half of the engine is clean, it makes me consider fixing the leaking upper oil pan gasket.

The above AB kit has a ton of gaskets you dont need, they say they are for other models. But anyone wants the throttle body gasket and heater gasket, let me know, happy to send along.

 

I also have hood interference on our coil pack relocation.

Before I made some adjustments we had one of the plug wires pull off from contact of the under hood insulation resulting in a misfire SES. Freaked out the significant other and resulted in me driving across down in rush hour traffic to diagnose in a parking lot.

Pushed it back on and she drove home, she was mad that she could have easily diagnosed the issue and fixed it instead of calling me.

Now her hood sits a little at the windshield higher like that of a turbo charged sport compact.

Have not gotten around it it but I plan on cutting a sheet of abs to cover the plug wires and zip tie it to the assembly so they cannot walk or rub raw should the insulation ever sag.

 

Congrats!

 

Spoke to soon, the engine sounds nice, quiet, no ticking.

I have misfire codes for cylinders 2,4,6, sometimes 8. That would seem to be the just the passenger side, which use both coils, so its not the coils. The wires are new.
Also had p1129, o23 sensor the first several times I drove it, I think I had water or degreaser in the connection, seems to be okay now.
The Bank 2, O2 sensor 1 has very erratic readings, sometimes nothing, sometimes its all over the place. Could that be a cause or is it an effect of the misfires?

Any ideas on where to start looking? I re-used a newer exhaust gasket at the manifold exhaust junction, I do not hear a leak.

 

This is gonna sound dumb but double check the firing order.

 

If the misfires are not that bad and the, car drives ok, its likely the O2 sensor. I had the same misfire issue, but with cylinders 3,5,7. One of the two new O2 sensors I installed were bad. I would also double check the O2 sensor wiring and make sure it is routed away from spark plug wires. Also try cleaning the connectors with electrical contact cleaner. The P1129 code means that the O2 sensors are swapped bank to bank. I dont think this is actually happening since the wires wont reach the wrong side. I think I also got this code.

 

After a few more short drive, knock on wood, the error codes are gone. Nothing pending either, seems to be running better. I have another 02 sensor that I can install, the passenger side is much easier to access. I started melting wax on it, hopefully that will work its way into the threads. It actually helped on the drivers side, the only thing that did. The threads literally unwound when I was wrenching on it. Took three days and at least a couple broken 02 sensor wrenches. I think in the end I cut the wires and put an impact socket on it.

I checked the wires and connections probably 20 times before I fired it up. Seems like every night I confirmed them, I figured that would be an obvious user error.

Knock on wood, it will still be fine this weekend when I have time to work on it.

It does appear to be running hotter than before, around 208, from 180's. Might be the weather or I screwed something up putting it back together. The hoses all get hot, none of them are particularly rigid. Another project for another day.

 

is everything running okay now?

I just did a cold compression test on my rover as I am getting a misfire on cylinder 5 too.

all cylinder ran between 80-90 psi. Cylinder 5 was at 30. Did wet test and it went to 40.

is this an indicator that I have bad rings or bad head? Also is it concerning that it has such low compression all the way around?

 

Use a bore scope. If you don't see any cylinder scoring my bet is on a valve issue. Get the valves open and I wouldn't be shocked if there's some pitting on the valve face

 

Lower compression on all cylinders is normal if the block is cold and sat for a while (oil drained down off the piston rings). Also depends on how many strokes the engine turned during the test. Usually gets to max after 5 or 6 rotations, fully charged battery with throttle propped open and all spark plugs removed. Count the strokes by watching the needle of the pressure gauge and use the same count for each cylinder. Since wet test was still low, could be valves or head gasket. Exhaust valves have hard lives in there. Maybe get the valves closed, then apply some compressed air into the spark plug hole, then listed at tail pipe and throttle and oil filler to see where leak is going. Take care for safety to mind potential for crank rotation when applying compressed air.