Captain Obvious

Craft foam sheets from the local arts and crafts store? That's what I did on my family truckster when the taillights started leaking on that one. Leave the original gasket in place and augment with a thin layer of auxillary foam. And maybe some seal-n-peel as well? Something like this: doesn't have to be neat... Just enough that it won't show from the outside:

And since I can do pics again, here's my solution to the bulkhead feedthru. Not as glamorous as what you did, but more stock-ish. I made a stainless version of the original feedthru. Used the bead roller for this too. New stainless version with old crusty original in background:

Wonder if my picture posting problems persist. Let's find out. Here's my cobbled together bead roller for when I was messing with the tubing: OK, so I can post pics again.

Funny... For the exact reasons you mentioned is why I thought the Seall-n-peel was a better option. I wanted something that would NOT bond (was NOT a glue), and I wanted something that took up volume instead of adhering two items together. My thoughts are if the foam alone is not sealing, it's because the foam is not thick enough, not compliant enough, or has taken a set and isn't spongy enough anymore. You don't need the foam to stick, you just need it to take up the gaps. And if the foam alone won't fill the gaps, then you need something with volume, not stickiness.

Agreed. Neat project. Kinda confused what he was doing in the first pic with the aluminum rod turned in the lathe, but maybe it'll all make sense to me later. The way he's clamping the part in the mill vise, that lathe work seems unnecessary? Like I said, maybe it'll all make sense later. So what bearings is us putting in?

I will work up a summary on what parts I used. I can quickly tell you however, that the Sentra throttle body I used was not compatible with the original TPS, and the TPS that came on that throttle body was not compatible with the Bosch L-Jet. The original is three positions (idle, mid, and WOT), and the TPS that came on the Sentra throttle body was a potentiometer. Bottom line? I spent a bunch of time adapting the original TPS onto the Sentra throttle body.

I'm not sure I would use that. The intent of the seal-n-peel is that it designed to take up volume, but NOT stick. It's intended to peel off (easily without damage) at the end of the heating/cooling season.

I used "Seal and Peel" which is a clear silicone that is designed to be an easily removable temporary seal. I haven't had the pleasure of trying to pull the taillights out since (so I don't know how bad it would be), but I've done the same on other cars and it was fine. They came off without a fight. I would post up some pics o what I did, but I'm getting the same server error as other people. But the tube looks like this:

Wow. Makes me really wonder if the oil control rings were installed properly. I can't imagine they wore out that quickly, but maybe put in wrong somehow? In any event, the answer will hopefully be forthcoming soon.

I'm thinking a PO was running a velocity stack snout or was matching the hole to the back of a non-stock air cleaner or something.

Yeah, that's got to be tricky. Watched the video. That's pretty blue. And if you've burned up one quart of oil already just idling in the garage, then it's pretty clear there's something internal wrong. From my armchair, it doesn't look like a carb issue. Curious though... If it is a ring issue, it would seem unlikely that there would be the same issue on all six cylinders. If the rebuilder knew how to do the rings correctly, he might have had one ring slip out of place on one piston or something. But all six seems unlikely unless there was a systemic mistake. I'm no ring expert, but there are different ring compositions. And don't some of those different compositions take longer to seat than others?

Yes, .100 nozzles are stock. And about the suitability of the SM needles, some people seem to have good results with them and others can't get idle to work right. I think there's a problem with the rings seating, or as Yarb suggested, an issue with the oil control rings. Why would you take it to a different shop? Wouldn't it be the responsibility of the first shop to make things right?

I'm guessing it doesn't do much one way or the other. Doesn't make things much better, but pretty sure it wouldn't make things worse. Did they do the same thing on the exit end at the butterfly?

Cool. Looks like you had a good time. And neat pics. Clear that you know what you're doing behind a camera. About the only thing I take pics of is cars or car parts. And I like the pic of that sculpture too. Looks like a nice Daydream.

Oh, and there was a round dimple dent in the gear plastic as well that lined up with the dot on the clamp. I got lucky!

I got lucky. When the factory set the proper position, they put a blob of silicone (or something) onto the clamp that holds the gear in position. The lucky part was when the PO moved the gear, it split the silicone blob into two pieces. One part on the clamp, and one part on the gear. I rotated the gear back such that the two halves of the silicone blobs lined up again. I've been inside other AFM's and the blobs are gone completely. Thankfully on this AFM, the split blob was an easy way to tell where the gear belonged.

Haha! The car this is going into is running uber lean, and one of the other things I discovered while poking around with this AFM is that someone had been in there before and had adjusted the spring gear to be about ten teeth leaner than when it left the factory. I'm not sure the AFM spring is the only thing going on with the car running lean, but it's certainly something that needed to be addressed. I put the gear back to factory position and we'll see what happens when I seal this AFM up and get it back in the car. So this AFM has clearly been messed with and abused in the past by a PO. Sticky and lean.

OK, so the next step in the ordeal was a success. I drilled and tapped one of the places that used to be a rivet. I did one of the positions along the top. Looks like this: So now there are three screws that hold the cover on. One along the top and two near the bottom: This is just a test fit with no sealant, so the next step will be to take the cover off again and put some silicone on the sealing surface and then screw it together "for good". And after that, put it onto the car and see what happens!!

Well "hammer" and "bash" aren't the words that come to my mind... I was thinking "gently pry" with a "small screwdriver" or "pointy pick" to identify where the seams are. But whatever works! And since the cross section of the original isn't round, I'm not sure sticking an O-ring in there is going to work. It it were me, first thing I would do is clean the coating off the valve cover and use a flat file to dress the surface where the cap is supposed to seal. I don't know if it's a trick of the light, but in the pic you posted, that sealing surface looks to have imperfections on the one side. Pitting or other imperfections on the valve cover? At eight and nine-oclock in your pic? :

So I used a red Sharpie and marked the inside of the AFM where the interference was occurring. This is my target for bashing. Here's my target to push the case back out a little bit: And here's my drift tool. I rounded the end to try to minimize digging in and gouging the aluminum: In position and ready for an adjustment whack: And the clearance after a couple percussive maintenance adjustments It'still pushed in a little, but it clears the AFM vane: So now the AFM moves smooth for the entire sweep. Next, I'm going to work on how to put the side cover back into place. The plan is to drill and tap at least one of the rivet locations along the top side. The bottom already has two screws, so I figure if I add a third along the top and silicone it into place, it should be good enough. Certainly better than the broken paperweight I started with.

Thanks zKars!!

I know it's hard to believe, but this is a separate piece: "Are you sure about that five minutes??"

Haha!!! Mostly just lucky. And yes... The term "O-ring" typically evokes a picture of a soft pliable contraption with a circular cross section. The seal on the filler cap is neither soft, pliable, or circular in cross section. It may have been soft and pliable at one time, but it's not now.

And once the cover was off, the problem was obvious. Here's a pic of the damper vane. I'm back lighting the gap between the movable vane and the case / body of the AFM. This is a pic when there is very little air throughput and the vane in the "mostly closed" position: And here's a pic of the damper vane at about mid-scale. Note how the vane is rubbing against the inside of the case: And then here is the damper vane "beyond" the sticky spot. Note that there is a gap again: So mystery solved.... The case is bent. Pushed in at that spot. Like someone dropped it or hit it with something big enough to dent the case. Note that I looked it over thoroughly from the outside and did not detect the dent. I did find an anomaly on the outside of the case, but it's quite subtle. Here's a pic of the outside of the case after some "block sanding" in an attempt to highlight the problem area. The clean spots were wiped by the sanding, but the darker spots (still dirty) did not: So, mystery solved!!! I'm going to try to fix it, but ran out of time today. I'm thinking that a few well aimed taps with a ball peen hammer might push the dent back out enough for the damper vane to clear the case.

Well I went ahead and performed the surgery. Mystery solved. Goes like this: I used a small carbide burr in a Dremel to remove the smoooshed off section of the posts holding the back cover on. Here's a pic of the burr and one of the posts ground off: Worked my way all around the perimeter grinding off the posts. Also took out the two retaining screws: Even after doing that, the cover was stuck fast. The adhesive / sealant they used is quite tenacious, After some experimentation, I found that it was susceptible and softened by carb / brake cleaner. I lightly sprayed around the perimeter a bunch of times waiting a minute or so between rotations for the solvent to work into the seam: Doing that a couple times letting the solvent attack the sealant glue. Then some prying with a small screwdriver: And presto... Cover is off: