Well, with the ridiculous temperatures this week in Central New Jersey, my garage has been only a few degrees cooler than Hades in August - so not much work has been getting done on any of the cars! Boy, I wish the person that built this house had opted for the door leading into the backyard. At least then there would be a bit of flow-through ventilation.
It hasn't been a completely wrench- free week, however, so allow me to digress a bit from the purpose of this blog....
Monday I did a major job on our '99 Ford Windstar van, repair of the infamous isolator bolts, cause of the P0171/0174 codes and source of the Check Engine Light.... That involved removing the intake manifold plenum and replacing the 8 bolts that hold it in place. You can see pictures of that project
here.
I also am hoping to fix the 'cloud of white smoke' problem with the '76 B - when I replaced the head gasket last year, I didn't have a torque wrench so could not tighten the cylinder head bolts properly. Now, when I drive the car for a short time at a constant speed (say, 45 mph) then stop at a light, when I drive away from the light, a humongous cloud of white-ish smoke appears like magic behind the car.... Leading me to believe that coolant is getting into the cylinders while I'm cruising along, from the cylinder head not being snug against the block. Once the weather moderates to the low 90's, I will re-torque the head bolts, with my new torque wrench purchased for the van project and install a new valve cover gasket and hope that fixes it.
Dan
