I tore a few ignition wire boots, so I'm going to have to replace them and figured I'd replace the coil packs - wondered if it's not too bad to replace the valve cover gaskets, lifters (best to replace around 150,000 miles?) and valley pan gasket/seals or if I should wait if/when I replace the head gaskets? There was a bit of a tick that I think was in time with the RPM, but using 15W-40 seems to have helped. I'm not sure if that tick was a slipped liner or lifter noise. Do the lifters need to be replaced? It doesn't look like that will be too difficult, but I don't think I'm up for the head gasket job right now - probably best to do that inside rather than outside when it's starting to rain here. I watched the AB head gasket videos (a few times) and I think I can manage the vcg and seems like new lifters just get soaked in oil then placed back in. There's a lot of oil around the vcgs but I've done the PCV mod since then and was never able to clean all that - didn't want to just blast it with a pressure washer or engine degreaser yet.

I'm also wondering if the rear crank seal requires removing the sump - not sure if the manual means sump when it mentions "underbelly panel." If the rear seal were leaking, I imagine I'd see a lot of oil on the flywheel and in the bell housing? I didn't really, so I'm guessing it's alright?

 

If you’re replacing the coil wires it’s a good time to replace your valve cover gaskets if they’re leaking much. Don’t do your head gaskets if they don’t need it. The rear crank seal needs either the engine or transmission to be removed. I wouldn’t touch that unless the leak is horrendous.

 

"Underbelly panel" refers to the plastic piece that attaches to the chassis that -- most people no longer have.

 

There was a rat that chewed a wire by the expansion tank and also the new oil pressure sensor wire I installed… I’ll have to patch the wire and I know the thing was hanging out by the coil packs since that’s where I saw it looking at me when I opened the hood at two different points. I caught it (I think the one I caught is it) in a trap I put under the car, but I have a fear there are more wires chewed by the coil packs so I probably want to remove the upper intake and possibly even the lower intake to see everything anyway. I’m putting all the wire in new split tubing and taping it.

Would you say doing all this including the valve covers is a bit easier than the sump and timing cover, which I just did? An injury held me up for a while, but I got through it. I think I need new coil packs since there was a misfire code before and some ignition wire boots got torn when I was removing them. A spark plug broke also. I was able to get it out, but I hope it wasn’t cross threaded in there by someone in the past… I guess I’ll just find out. I think the valve covers have been leaking a lot although I did the PCV mod. I’d replace the valley pan and seals as well if the lower intake comes out.

I'm just dreading having to clean up more of a nasty nest with all of that rat crap. I left the hood open to try to help but it didn’t seem to mind. I’m pretty sure I heard it chewing things (hopefully just acorns) while I was working under the hood. I think it was just hiding by the coil packs and didn’t scurry away or anything. I hope the one I caught in a trap is the one that was living in there and hopefully there aren’t more. I feel like once a car has that problem it’s cursed because others will follow it’s scent and get in there…

I have an SAI vehicle and the job looked a bit crunched when I watched the AB videos, but I could attempt it.

 

Yes this is an easier job. If it was me I’d replace the spark plugs and wires before replacing the coils, but if it is a bad coil you’ll have to do all the access again.
For your rats, clean the area really well, then use some kind of deterrent. I spray a bit of bear spray on their favourite areas.

 

Thanks, I caught the rat (I think) in a trap below the car. Hope that’s that. I’ll try bear mace and dryer sheets. Figured simple green would do it but didn’t -just cleaned up and it went back in right after. I’ve got bear mace anyway since I live in the mountains and there’s a huge one out here lately - he was in my friend’s fridge in the garage last week feasting hard.

I think I’ll just do the plugs and wires for now and see how it runs after all this. If it’s still misfiring maybe I’ll try doing the coil packs and all the rest with it like vcg, rocker inspection, maybe lifters if they can be replaced without a new camshaft etc. It might not leak much after the PCV mod since I’d imagine most of the issue would be in the valve covers before.

 

I had a lifter or two bleeding down, I put a new set in and fixed the issue. If you don't have any extreme wearing on your lifters or cam, put a new set in.

 

Instead of replacing the hydraulic lifters you can clean them as well. New lifters might cause problems due to quality issues. As long as the stock lifters look good and can be made going again, I would stick with them. Here is what I did:

Read more about it in the video description on Youtube.