I just did plugs and coils on my 01 f150 4.6 with 140k When doing so I noticed the lower part of the intake and the valley looked wet (no standing oil) The plug wells had no oil in any of them. The valve covers seem to seep a little but nothing major. The truck idles and runs great. Is there an oil passage in the intake area? I've been a member for many years but I can't remember how to post pictures...lol

I've recently replaced the pcv and the pcv line.

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/qu...-pictures.html

 

Here's the pictures of the oil on the intake manifold. Any ideas?

 

Iduno, looks like it's just dirty. If it's running okay, not loosing any fluids, I'd clean it up as good as I could,- then monitor it from time to time. You could have Intake leaks or even a head gasket, but like I said....

 

Make sure you have a GOOD Motorcraft PCV valve in there. If the engine can't breath, it can get messy like that. The OEM PCV valve replacements made by other company's, such as Fram and others use a generic that's very restrictive. The engine will run constipated, these gases must go somewhere if they can't make it thru the valve.

 

I don't know it has that greenish look of coolant to me. You get coolant in that area and the dirt blowing back on it it can look like oil. It is also wet looking on the last pic and it has blown over onto the intake runner.... I'm saying coolant. JMO

 

Oh yeah I don't replace anything unless it's Motorcraft oem. The Pcv line was in bad shape so I put a new one on and it came with a pcv valve

 

I can kinda see that too but... Do you see the first picture the dirty oil like grim all over the top of the intake? How did that oil grim get that high?
Also there's some sort of plastic box attached to the bottom of the intake. It looks like there's oil seeping in that area where the two bolt together. I'm not leaking any oil on the ground and the coolant level never changes.

Truck runs awesome...I'm just trying to decide if I should pull the intake and do gaskets.

Jimmy

 

It's really nasty where the intake meets the head. And it's climbing

 

Looks allot like mine...This picture was showing a cracked passenger side intake manifold gasket right at the #1 runner. It seeped coolant for a while until I fixed it but looked like oil because of all the dirt. Your manifold looks pretty normal IMHO. Also the plastic thing attached to the manifold is the runner tuning valve.

 

Good posts!

The intake gaskets do go bad, -right at the water jackets, in front with both engines, -the 5fours and 4sixs. They get so bad that electrolysis crap eats at the heads under the ring causing them to pit. When you finally get around to changing them the gaskets themselves,it looks as though someone had smashed them with a hammer on both sides. Just where they circle the water jackets. The rest usually looks fine.

It's very possible it could be weeping from there a bit. Most likely takes awhile to run low on coolant from it though. Probably wouldn't notice it that way.

Even with composite manifolds the gaskets go bad there just same.

 

Is there a how to on removing the intake manifold? I've looked all over including YouTube. I can find everything except one for a 4.6 F150. It don't look like a bad job so I'll just change them out and clean it all up at the same time.

I'm just trying to stay on top of things since it has higher miles and I pull our 27' TT quite a bit during the summer. (Don't want to get stranded)

 

The job is pretty straight forward just make sure to label what bolts go where. Use OEM gaskets and be sure to clean up the head surface before you re-install. Now is a good time to give the runners a good cleaning because they look awful inside, you'll see (allot like the outside). Also plug the intake and spark plug holes so you dont get a bunch of crap in there when you are cleaning up the surface.

 

How is the 4six handling TT. It do alright? What gear do you pull in? Any problems? Just curious.

I pulled a car hauler for years. Truck has the 5four, that did alright, but mann , the brakes sure sucked at first. Had to go thro all that and beef everything up and use better lines.

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Anyway ParnAZ is a good guy, he's got it right. Intake gaskets must go down oil free. It's a good idea to swipe them with FastVap Mineral spirits first.

If your heads aren't pitted around the water jackets, plug everything and hit the heads mounting surfaces w/palm sander w/150-220. Not much, just clean them/ruff the surface very little. I shop vac the surface, then use Lacquer thinner (Medium vap)or Acetone to clean the aluminum surface. It very important these gaskets go down clean, -free from contaminates.

Torque the manifold down, - at least by the book (in stages). Adding in another stage will help compress the gasket accurately.

And yes, - no Felpro here. Only use dealership gaskets. These gaskets have been thru many revisions, - you want the latest. Only Ford has perfected THESE gaskets

 

The 4six does alright. The TT weighs 5300# dry. 0-40 is pretty interesting but after that it pulls good. I'm not one to put my foot to the floor when taking off. I try to go easy on it since it has high miles. I would like to upgrade maybe to a Diesel in the near future. Braking is no issue this trailer has really good brakes. The truck has 355 gears and I always pull with OD off. I would never buy a 4six on purpose ever again. I just settled because the truck was almost in perfect condition. It originally is from Florida so four years ago when I bought it I had the rockers under coated from the inside out and the bottom of each door sanded and por-15. So after four Michigan winters it's still rust free. Sorry for the long post

I see online the gasket set comes with three gaskets. Is the third one for that plastic thing under the intake? I'm going to tackle it in a couple weeks along with valve cover gaskets since it will be torn down that far.