Pete. (l33t FS) said:
Check the cam seals. I've had a new one spit out right after replacement.
If it wasn't leaking before and is now, it's got to be one of the things you changed or disturbed.
Good call on the cam seal- that was what it ended up being. Pulled the plugs, put in the UV dye (cashier at HF had never seen one before- it worked quite well) and had The Dancer crank the engine over so the starter spun it and after a few times oil started coming out from below the front (intake) cam sprocket. Annoying, in order to lock the camshafts in place to ensure it stayed in time you have to take essentially everything off of the head except for the camshafts themselves, but it didn't take too long to strip everything off, lock the camshafts in place with the tool at the opposite end, and pull the sprockets and to get to the seals. The intake one was clearly not where it should have been, so pressed it in to where it was supposed to be and put everything back together.
Unfortunately while checking things I noticed a slow but steady drip of coolant under the car as well... tracking that down took a lot more time but eventually I was able to figure out that it was coming from the hose assembly aft of the engine, specifically from a plastic junction just behind where the hoses connect to the driver's side of the block. So I need to call up the Ford parts dept (again) and see if they have that assembly in stock to pick up today to replace it.
The MOST annoying thing though, once again, was the heat shield on the exhausts manifold- that thing has been a monumental pain in the ass every time I've had to deal with it. If I didn't worry that leaving it off would result in cooking things I very definitely would leave it off- but no, I had to spend over an hour wrestling with getting it into place for the fasteners (that didn't break off when I took it off in the first place) to go into the block.
Hopefully once I get that hose assembly replaced and everything put back together things will behave this time... I'm really ready to be done with working on this thing (and I know its owner will be happy to finally have it back).
*bangs head on workbench*
So I got the hose assembly swapped out and was most of the way through putting everything back on the engine and got to the fuel rail, injectors, and high-pressure pump... and noticed that the Teflon seal on the #1 injector was torn and deformed. -_-
So now I need to replace that as well. The good news is that I already have the seals as part of the head gasket kit. The bad news is that seating the seals properly takes a very specialized tool that no parts store has in their loaner tools... so I have to buy another specialized tool that I may never use again.
There's a way to make the tools. Let me make some calls.
The tool is very expensive.
If the seal isn't too badly damaged, I have reused them. (Because I didn't have the tool). Frayed edges aren't a big deal as long as it's in one piece.
The seal is fairly hard plastic. So to install it, there is a mandrel that will evenly expand the seal for you to push it on over the injector. Then there is a resizing tool that squooshes the seal back down into the groove so you can install the injector.
You can make the expander with a sacrificed nose piece from a retractable pen, and set the seal in boiling water for a few minutes to make it softer.
The other end, you can make a resizing tool from a round Bic pen and probably another retractable pen to shape it.
Source: someone who saw my resizing tool set and told me how he made do without.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Amazon had a set that works for both GM and Ford injectors for about $60 that was just delivered:
Hopefully it will work properly- if not I can just return it (it's tempting to return it anyway, but it may come in handy down the line for either myself or someone else around here).
I actually searched and found that someone had made the models to 3D print some of the tools for another company's injectors, and if I weren't trying to get this done quickly I would have printed those out, seen how close they were to what I needed, and adjusted the models to try and make them work.
Oh, that looks really nice! Way better than the set that I bought, that only does one size*, and cost a lot more (like to say $170ish).
* Bosch makes like 99% of the direct injectors, almost all of them seem to be one size or close enough that one tool will work. Diesel and Mazda DISI (which aren't Bosch) use a flat gasket like a spark plug to seal, which makes them waaaay easier to R&R, srsly Bosch why didn't you do it this way
Yeah, I was happy to just find one that I could get next-day delivered since none of the normal auto parts/tools places locally seemed to have it (only one even had a tool set listed on their site, and it was 1. not available locally and 2. like $500!!) even if I've been aiming to cut back as much as possible on ordering things from Amazon.
We'll see this afternoon how well it works- I'm going to see how difficult it is to do before I decide whether or not to replace the seals on all 4 injectors or just the one that is damaged. I know I should replace all 4 since I have the seals for them (and replace the top seals too), but if the others are still in good shape I'm inclined to not mess with them as if I mess up installing one I'd have to go and get more seals. And the injectors stayed with the fuel rail when I pulled it, so I'm inclined to not replace the top ones as a result.
Since I've had to pick up two very specialized tools for this job (the timing tool kit which is pretty much only good for the 1.5 & 1.6 Ecoboosts and the injector seal tool set, which is at least useful for a lot more engines) it's renewed my interest in seeing about setting up a library/database of specialized tools that GRMers have so when someone finds that they need one they can see if there's someone near them who has it so they might not have to buy a tool that they'll only end up using once.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Big kudos to you for going through all this trouble to help someone out!
In reply to DWNSHFT :
Thanks! I like being able to use my skills to help people when I can, and it's also nice (despite the frustration that it has been at times- but that's just par for the course I think...) doing some serious wrenching after not having done much for so long. While it's nice having all of our vehicles (other than the DMC, which is a much more in-depth project) running nicely and not needing any real work it has also meant I've not gotten my hands really greasy for a while.
*sigh*
I have come to the conclusion that this car (or engine) simply just hates me.
Got the engine put back together and fired it up on Wednesday- and it clearly was not running right, and I unfortunately had a pretty good idea why: I had forgotten to remove the harmonic balancer alignment tool when I ran it with just the starter to find the oil leak, and it had both bent the alignment tool (which I bent back into shape) and elongated the slot where the tool sits- which is also what the timing sensor detects. Yeah, this one was purely on me.
Order new harmonic balancer from Amazon and have it overnighted, drive to the next town over since I had bought the last crankshaft bolt from the Ford dealership nearby, actually figure out how to get the TDC locating pin into the engine without (as the Haynes manual says you have to) having to remove the whole passenger side driveshaft and follow the full timing procedure, and put everything back together. Take it out on a test drive- comes up with a P0016: Camshaft Position A – Camshaft Position Correlation (Bank 1) code.
What. The. Hell. The one time I actually use the TDC pin and set the timing with it in place the engine decides to complain about the timing!
Doing some research though, it seems that it may not actually be a timing issue but a problem with the VCT (Variable Cam Timing) solenoid. SO I'm covering all my bases... I've got a replacement solenoid coming in Sunday, and tomorrow morning will see about double-checking the timing is set right while taking apart as little on the engine as possible. I've sadly almost got that down to a science with as many $(%785#ing times as I've had to pull the timing belt cover at this point!
