Valve Cover

Well, I dove in and decided to change the valve cover gasket. From the readings I did on it, it is supposed to just slide out and slide back in. Mine didnt. There were things in the way. One tube I started to loosen, but then coolant started seeping out before I even loosened it all the way. I left that tube alone after that.

I also had to unattach the fuel line. I didnt know what would happen if I did that, but luckily only a small amount of fuel leaked out. I wasnt sure if it would continuously leak or just a little bit.

I had to remove the air filter assembly, and about 5 different vaccum lines. I finally got the valve cover off the engine and snaked it out of the tangle of tubes and wires. I cleaned some parts of it and removed the old dry rotted gasket. I applied some new RTV sealant and attached the new cork gasket.

It was starting to get dark so I rushed to get the valve cover back on the motor. I probably should have waited til the RTV sealant dried a bit first. But I didnt.

I bought a torque wrench for this project and thought I knew how to use it. The manual said to torque down the bolts to 28 in-lbs. What I didnt know was that there is a difference between in-lbs (inch pounds) and ft-lbs (foot pounds). Actually i didnt know there was such a thing as in-lbs.

I learned about the difference when I broke 2 of the bolts with the torque wrench. Twenty eight in-lbs = about 1.57 ft-lbs. I was trying to tighten the bolts to 28 ft-lbs. SNAP… twice. I am now on the search for replacment valve cover bolts. ugh.

Radio Alternative

I also mounted some roll bar speakers and hooked up an amplifier. I wanted to have tunes without buying a radio for the Jeep (and risk it getting stolen). I came up with the idea of hooking up my mp3 player directly to the amp. I loosly routed all the cables and wires to the amp and speakers and tried out my idea. It worked. I can control the volume via the mp3 player.

Now I still need to go back to reroute and hide the wires. I need to mount the amp and cover the hole that the radio is supposed to fit in.