Attn: Nirav

heh heh :) I'm procrastinating... actually, the valve cover gasket just go delivered this afternoon... I was hoping to do it last weekend, but didn't get the part in time. I know I could probably reuse the valve cover gasket - since I just put in the new one, but I figured for the

10 bucks I wasn't going to be cheap and don't want to do this again - EVER! :)

So I have the new (19k old) valve cover with seals intact sitting in the garage and I hope to get to it this weekend. I need to pick up some long-reach pliers before I do this though - I think that will help a lot with those fun coolant lines..

Here's a question... what purpose does that pass through the plenum (of the coolant) serve? Can I just tie those two lines together :)

Nirav

96 Max GLE 120k

I going to reserve comment for now.

I have an Idea but I want to confirm it

I'll give you my thoughts..

I think it helps keep the EGR port hot - to help reduce the amount of carbon/oil/deposits... thats the only thing I can come up with..

Nirav

NissTech,

Finally got around to doing the valve cover job again. It took me 3 hours from start to finish - much faster and cleaner than my first attempt at it. I picked up a few long reach pliers (straight, 45" and

90") and they made the coolant hoses to the plenum much easier. I ended up taking a different route today.. I disconnected the throttle body end of the one hose and the hard-tube end of the other - so I left the plenum-end of the hoses connected.

I popped on the junkyard valve cover (15k miles, 99 engine) and used a new cover gasket, but re-used (without removing/seating) the spark plug seals as I had planned. The rest of the reassembly was smooth.

I'll have to pull the coil in a couple of weeks (for cyl #5) to see the status of that seal :), since thats the one that had popped out on me.

Cheers, Nirav

96 Max GLE, 121k

NissTech wrote:

Wow 3 hours, that's pretty good time !

I don't think I could have done it any faster :-))

Those long reach pliers you mentioned are a MUST have when doing this job, I use the 45 degree ones more that any plier in my box. It has a million uses.

Good to hear you got her fixed up, and I hope this repair is the final one.

The whole job went much faster than I anticipated... I guess the experience of having done it once helped tremendously. I knew exactly which tool, what size and what angle to tackle each bolt/nut from this time around.

Those pliers will make many jobs easier! I can't believe I never looked them up/bought them earlier...

I'll check on seal in a few weeks - need to do the plugs!

Cheers, Nirav

96 Max GLE, 121k

NissTech wrote: