I'm still trying to figure out my P0171/174/734/733 and now P0300/308/306 codes. Plugs and Mag. wires are a year old and replacing the MAF did not help so I'm thinking vacuum leak that's slowly getting worse (started out with a trans code long ago, then the lean codes more and more often and now misfires). When applying vacuum to the intake, I can hear a decent leak at the rear of the engine near the coils somewhere, so I'm thinking it's one of the intake manifold gaskets. I figure I should replace the upper and lower ones since I can't id which one is leakingand I might as well do the VC gaskets too. What about the head gaskets??? I assume they are original (don't really know) and as far as I know they are fine, but it seems like a good time to replace them, I'm just not too sure what's involved (unbolt rocker arm, pull out push rods and unbolt head bolts, is that it?). Is there anything else I might want to replace / check while I'm in there and have it all pulled apart? This job sounds pretty straight forward looking at the RAVE, but it's something I've never done before. Thanks.

 

You could replace the cooling hoses and thermostat. Mine were pretty spongy, so I replaced them with a kit from atlantic british. There is a cooling hose that runs under the intake so at least change that one if you don't change all of them. Change the belt if its old. As far as removing heads, I have never done it to a rover so I can not help you there.


Willie

 

Once you have the intake manifold off, remove rocker shafts, remove pushrods, If you have secondary air, remove valve and pipe assemblies(one on each side), remove the ports the valves were screwed onto(9mm hex drive in middle of port), unbolt the exhaust manifolds from underneath(3 nuts to remove-get new gaskets and new studs and nuts), unbolt ground strap at firewall on driver's side, unbolt 13mm bolt from cylinder head on driver's side, use a screwdriver or small prybar to pop the crankshaft position sensor connecter out of its bracket(on back of head on driver's side), Unbolt the cylinder heads(discard bolts as new ones are required), remove the cylinder heads. Torque for the head bolts are 15 lb.ft. initial torque, then 90 degrees on all, then another 90 degrees.

 

Thanks, sounds like might have done this a time or two.
Willie, I just replaced my hoses and coolant 2 months ago. I do still have to replace that one hose beneath the intake so I quess now is the time. I'm in a time crunch and need to get this truck inspected, so now I'm thinking about just doing the upper intake gasket and probably the rest later. The leak sounds like it's at the coil which I think would be about right, wouldn't the valley pan gasket be a lot lower? What do you guys think about putting a sealant like RTV on the old gasket and reusing it to see if that seals the leak? Is that just a waste of time?

 

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I would get a new gasket. I have never seen the plenum gaskets on these leak and reuse them everytime I do valve cover gaskets, intake gasket, or head gasket. The intake bolts on these were not correctly torqued from the factory and relax over time, usually around 50k, resulting in an oil leak, coolant leak, vacuum leak, or all of the above, the most common being vacuum leak, resulting in the misfire and lean fault codes. I would do the intake manifold gasket at the minimum. Also, the number 4 and 6 plug wire boots tend to get hard and crack at the plug, so if they look light blue to white, I would replace those at the same time, or do the entire set as it is a good time to access them.

 

Thanks, I'm going to suck it up and do everything. I got the whole head kit from DAP, hopefully it will be here thisweekend. It looks likethe jobwill take some time, but at leastI won't have to crawl around underneath the truck for once.That's too tough on the body these days.

 

Good idea. The only thing you will need to go underneath for is to unbolt the exhaust manifolds at the downpipes and drain the oil, replace the filter. Make sure you blow all the head bolt holes out, liquids do not compress and not doing so will give an incorrect torque on the bolts. I'm on my second set of head gaskets this week.