I have been cleaning up an oil covered engine. I thought the pcv valve was puking oil, but uopn further investigation it is the passenger side valve cover. So I pulled the upper intake to give me some room and when I started to pull the valve cover I realized the bolts were barely hand tight. All of them.

 

So that seems like an easy fix.

Adrianspeeder

 

As much as it sucks, at least it is only loose bolts.

 

I'd complain. You paid them to do the work right?

 

Get your money back, then start working on you vehicle yourself, its the only way to insure this stuff never happens.

 

Sounds like another ASE certified mechanic wasn't worth the paper his credentials were printed on. We have a few of those around here. My brother had a 78 luv mikado 4x4 and was having the engine rebuilt. He stopped by to see the progress and caught the mechanic beating in engine bearings with a ball peen hammer. He got the truck back and the motor blew again in less than 1k miles!

 

Did anyone do any work on it recently? Valve cover gaskets naturally collapse over time; especially on these older smallblocks, and even moreso for the R one on a V8. So it could be just age that caused the bolts to be loose.

 

The F150 did this, and IIRC, the Bronco ones weren't exactly tight on its old engine.

 

It could be exactly that. I got the truck from my dad who got it from my aunt when she died in 92. I know my dad didn't do anything other than change the oil in it. So it could be the age of the gaskets.

 

A-ha... So you might have been a bit hasty in blaming someone for normal wear & tear on a 24-y.o. truck, huh?

I hope you're diving into all the maintenance that was skipped, like coolant, brake fluid, door seal & hinge lube, filters...



...and all the OTHER wear-&-tear items, like hoses, belts, vacuum lines, bulbs, leaves in the HVAC, suspension bushings...

 

Well the master cylinder was bad so I put a new one on there. With that I flushed out all of the old fluid. I had to put in 2 new hinge pins and bushings and they got greased when they went in.. It has a small coolant leak so when I fix that it will get new fluid and hoses. I have broken and replaced some vacuum lines. The heater core is bad and I can't feel air coming out if any vents even though I know the motor is turning. When I fix all of that I'm sure I will find leaves in the system.

 

Leaves will be between the wiper valance & the evaporator core, forward of the firewall; all other airflow problems will be behind the firewall inside the HVAC box. Read this caption & follow the links in it:

 

That is a good piece of information. Once I get the intake manifold back on that will be next.

 

Hey Steve, how do I clean the evaporator without removing it. It looks like I have the same hvac box as in your pictures. I pulled out the blower motor and resistor. There weren't many leaves at all, but I can feel the evaporator and it feels pretty nasty. I want to clean it, how.

Thanks

 

Nevermind I got it. Talk about nasty. It had to have had 1/16" of stuff gummed up on it. No wonder why I wasn't getting any airflow. Now all I need is to find an a/c shop that still does r-12. I have the license to buy it, but I don't know if the gauges, adapters, and vacuum punp will be cheaper than just getting someone to do it.