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First the bolts and nuts will be rusty from heat and age. Be sure and use a 6 point socket ONLY! People have got into this and those EGR bolts are sometimes known as the "Evil EGR" bolts! Be sure and get straight on the bolts before trying to loosen them. If you round the heads off (and people have!) then it is a much bigger problem!
Here is a thread that I stole the above picture from that might help too. Remove EGR
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The issue as I see it with the SC V-8 is that the bolts holding the EGR are not square to anything except one another & you really can't see them; so, you have the socket on & you think it is square to the EGR & it isn't & you know the rest of the story.
In one of my threads, one of you kind souls told me how to take the EGR out while still attached to the TB Elbow. If it hadn't been for that, I would probably still be trying to get that bolt out! If I recall correctly, it involved removing the 4 primary bolts from the elbow & loosening the 2 bolts at the pivot points. By pivoting the elbow up in the front with the EGR attached, I was able to get to the 5th bolt of the SC under the TB elbow to remove the SC & then, the rest was easy peasy.
Also, I removed the two bolts at the bottom of the flexible metal pipe and left the pipe attached to the EGR.
In summary: I was able to remove both the TB Elbow & the EGR together after removing the SC.
Of course, Mr. White, you may already have it all done by now.
I would remove the cabin filter housing completely before trying to tackle the EGR bolts. It is a great help to make as much space availbale for the works you want to do, so,if indoubt, rather remove more, than less...
I would remove the cabin filter housing completely before trying to tackle the EGR bolts. It is a great help to make as much space availbale for the works you want to do, so,if indoubt, rather remove more, than less...
I'd venture that preparing ahead of time to store removed components in a safe, sane, orderly, and OBVIOUS array, then removing ALL potential traps, time-wasters, and generally easily damaged or misplaced nuisances...
... can cut the total labour time just about exactly in HALF.. vs wasting time to work around a cluster-frag of 'awkwardness' that requires contortions, X-ray visualization, and chronic recovery of bits that escape proper grasp or resist tools.
It's dry underneath. Nothing wrong with my valley hose.
Ignore the water at the top of the images. I'm doing this job on the driveway and it's been raining the last couple of days.
So now I'm sort of screwed. I guess I didn't need to take this out after all. I still don't know where the leak is coming from. I might just get this all back together only to have it still leaking.
I'm going to get back on the Harper Jag site and start figuring out which of the hoses I want to order as replacements. I'll change the valley hose for sure. And, I'm going to order a new water pump.
You may have slower 'net performance in general, as well?
Major cyberwars are raging, lo these many years and have gotten REALLY bad off the back of the present early stages of WW III. Malware in great supply has been attacking via web browsers.
Last edited by Thermite; Aug 23, 2024 at 11:37 PM.
You are one of the few that the valley hose did not leak on? I wonder if it might have been replaced before you got the car? It's looks fine with no swelling where the large hose transitions to the small hose. That's where they all leak!
It's a well known failure so I think you are wise to just change it along with the rest of the repairs. The car is 20+ years old now.
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My Harper Jag Parts website access issue has been resolved. It was my VPN that was causing the problem.
Now.... About all these gadgets... do the have to be changed or can I reassemble things with the existing ones? Some are a little on the pricy side.
Also, I will be in England the next three weeks. Are jag parts any cheaper there? Does anyone have any recommendations for jag parts dealers in the UK? If not, I'll order from harpers and they should be here by the time I get back.
Sorry, to hear that you have not yet found the leak, but as it is practically a given that the valley hose will go sooner or later, see it as preventive maintenance. When I bought my car some 6 years ago and I read about the valley hose in the forum, I replaced it, although I did not have any leaks, and a good thing it was, as it looked like it would have burst only a short time later!
As I am a lazy guy and don't like to do jobs twice, apart from the gaskets I have replaced what needs a lot of work to be accessed: the valley hose, the knock sensors, etc., and I have also cleaned the intercoolers internally.
In your place I would do a compressor oil change, which is much easier to do whilst it is out of the car.
Might be that the prices are lower in England, you can easily make comparisons online, you just have to be aware of much you may import into the US dutyfree and if the UK price incl. duty is still worth it if you exceed the dutyfree amount.
I have ordered parts in the UK in the past, mainly before Brexit, and have used the follwing suppliers:
Too bad a smoke or water test couldn't be done to better determine where the leak is. You know it is leaking & from your description, it mimicked the valley hose or something like that. If you don't find a hose that is leaking, is it likely that it is anything but the water pump? Could something be Jerry-rigged to test the water pump with a garden hose? If it was leaking at the gasket of the water pump which, I think, is most often the case, would the gasket show any signs of the leak? Because it mimicked a VH leak, it couldn't have been at one of the hose ends only visible when the bumper cover is removed?
Do hope you find it.
As to gaskets, I replaced all but the copper metal one at the bottom of the flexible pipe since I was sent the wrong one; I sprayed it with a copper gasket refresher & reused. Neither did I replace the large rubber gaskets at the top of the intercooler - I coated them with silicone. They looked too new to discard without a try. So far, no leaky!
However, it only makes sense that if a gasket is not distorted or broken, with all of the wonderful sealants out there, it should be able to be coated and reused, but what do I know?
Have a great time in Jolly Old England, just don't eat too many "full English breakfasts" & use the time to take a little of the Mickey about the leak!
Sorry, I’m an idiot and didn’t notice that auto correct had changed “gaskets” to ‘gadgets”.
I was trying to ask if all the gaskets really needed changing or if any could be reused?
If the gaskets have been in place for a long time, I would principally replace all of them. Rubber gaskets could have hardened, paper gaskets need replacing anyway, same as metal gaskets which seal by deforming when bolts get tightened. Exceptions like what Steve said may occur, but I did not have those issues.
The only gaskets that I would not replace if they have not been in place long and the rubber is still "soft" are the rubberized ones that connect the intercoolers with the supercharger outlet and the one at the back of the supercharger that connects to the elbow to the TB.
Well, I'm back from my trip to England and all of the replacement parts I ordered while away have arrived. Now I just need to wait for a day off to start re-assembly. Carl at Harper Jag was very helpful. The online order showed shipping was going to be $179, but once he actually packaged everything and shipped it, it only cost $38. He did say that the supercharger serpentine belt has been changed to a longer one and requires replacement of the idler and tensioner. That was going to cost another 200-300 so I said no. I ordered the belt I needed from Rock Auto. I'm still waiting for that to arrive, but it will be ages until I get that far in the reassembly.
I do not know about the length of the new version of the supercharger belt, but one difference is that it is ribbed on both sides, not only one as the old version.
Great & welcome home! A few years back, I replaced both belts &, I too, ordered them from Rock. If you have occasion to talk with Carl, please tell him that Steve In Bellevue, WA says hello.
Hope the rest goes smoothly. Still enjoying the fact that I have no coolant or oil leaks! However, I am not far from 100k miles and plan to replace transmission pan and oil in the New Year.
So.... I finished reassembling everything, double checked all my connections, and refilled the coolant system. I started the car and was pleasantly surprised to find that it started right up. However, coolant came pouring out of the car and all over the driveway. Now that I'm familiar with the system, it didn't take me too long to find the leak. If you are looking at the car from the front, on the left side of the engine, there are two rubber hoses that connect to metal pipes. Coolant was pouring out of the top connector. I pulled the metal clip to disconnect the connector and using a dental pick, removed the O-ring that was inside. The O-ring was gummy and the cause of the problem. Here's the connector in question:
And the O-ring:
I went to my local auto parts store and bought a replacement O-ring for $1.09. I could've done this whole job in about half an hour for a dollar instead of the $900 I've spent on parts so far. At least I know that the hoses I have replaced should never cause me any problems for as long as I own the car.
I have gotten a check engine light a few times. P1000 and P0322 are showing when I hook up the iCarsoft scanner. I've cleared the codes and they don't seem to be coming back. I think it probably needs a good long run.
But here's my really big problem. The front shocks are flat on the ground!!!! This was not an issue before I started the valley hose job. I have previously replaced both front air shocks and don't suspect them of being the problem. While working on the back side of the engine, I laid moving blankets along the fenders and over the shock towers to prevent scratching anything. It was hard to reach some things and I ended up laying on top of the shock towers quite a few times to reach the back. I'm worried that I have damaged the air lines somewhere. The front left shock deflates fastest (within an hour), but after a short while, both front shocks will be bottomed out. The rear doesn't seem to be affected. I have sprayed the top of the shocks (where the air lines come in) with soapy water, and don't see any bubbles. I also sprayed the spiderweb of metal tubes on the left side of the engine bay (think they are the air distribution lines) and no bubbles there either. After starting the car and waiting about 2 minutes, the car comes back to normal height, but there must be a significant leak somewhere.
Any suggestions as to how to track down my air leak?
