zanzabar0

Finished replacing the passenger valve cover gasket to try and stop my oil leak, as well as the pcv valve and grommet, upper intake gasket, and spark plugs and wires. All of the lines and hoses I disconnected all were put back. Only two things I think may be the rough idle culprit,, the hose attached to the pcv valve cracked and I couldn't get it off so I put some high temp rtv around it to seal it off but I doubt that has anything to do with it. Second and what I think may be the cause, is when I took off the intake hose between the silencer and tb a piece broke off at the tb end about 2" long by 1" deep in kindof a right triangle form. So just to see if it worked, I wrapped some gorilla tape around it and clamped it on. So what im guessing is that some air is getting in under the tape and throwing things off.
The truck runs fine past idle, when let off rpms drop down quickly. during idle it sounds like a v8 just barely running like, very choppy around 3 or 400 rpm and smells foul. also, the oil leak is half fixed now, noticing a slight coolant leak and still leaking oil I think I have to replace a head gasket.........
The truck ran fine before the project, minus the leakage

rworegon

Unmetered air getting into the TB can throw things off as you describe.

Sturmcrow

You can pick up that intake hose from Rockauto.com for $35, IIRC. I had to change it out on my truck too after bits started falling off. I was also worried that one of those chunks might get sucked into the intake.

oldblue

spray some brake or carb cleaner around the areas you think you may have a vacuum leak and see if the idle changes, usually it will choke out and die if there is a leak. as for coolant leak, check the coolant hoses that go into the throttle body as they have to come off to get to the valve covers. Did you re-seal the cam plugs on the back of each head? they are notorious for leaking oil. Its also possible you rolled a valve cover gasket and are leaking from that.

zanzabar0

thank you rworegon. that's exactly where I ordered from it sturmcrow, seems like they have the better prices around after looking. I actually have noticed the slight coolant leakage before the replacement haven't really took the time to look around tho, I put a fair amount of rtv on the corners of the half moons and everything has looked dry so far. I did break the front right valve cover bolt on the passenger side and did have to wiggle and maneuver the cover and gasket back on so maybe I did roll the gasket or am leaking some from the missing bolt area. i'm just waiting on the intake hose to hopefully fix the idle issue then go on and diagnose the rest of the issues. today I did check the oil and noticed tiny bubbles on the dipstick, which I have never noticed before, and the truck hasn't been driven since I replaced everything

zanzabar0

Put the new hose in and it still idles rough. Dark smoke comes out the tail pipe. Could it be the new plugs or maybe the tps? I'll check the vacuum lines when I get home

rworegon

It could be the new plugs. What did you put in? Were they gapped properly? Are all the spark plug cables seated properly?

When is the smoke coming out? Under what conditions?

zanzabar0

i put in ngk v powers. it doesn't really smoke at idle but when I give it throttle it throws it. I followed the gap specs from the manual at .8mm and made sure each cable was set good. ill check the tps and maf in the morning just to make sure

TacoRalph

I fixed mine pretty easily. I sprayed some carb cleaner in trying to find the vacuum leak and realized it was right where the intake plenum gaskets are. I realized I must have over tightened/did not tighten in the right sequence the intake plenum bolts when reinstalling after my valve cover job. This resulted in a vacuum leak where the plenum gaskets are resulting in a rough idle / check engine light. To correct this, I loosened all the bolts on the upper and lower plenum and tightened in the correct sequence and to the correct torque. The rough idle was gone after doing this and seemed back to normal. If everything worked fine before you started the job and your sure everything is hooked up properly, this is your most likely culprit and it is a very easy fix.