well, i've got a can of worms, it seems. went over a hefty pair of bumps at a four-way intersection, and got an instant check-engine light. no apparent change in anything and no new noises so i put my panic in check, continued 30 seconds to the gas station i was going to anyway, then shut it off and went inside for a snack. seemed fine on restart so i drove carefully back home, just 2 minutes or so. upon inspection i found that the standoff on the LH-side intake duct which connects to the full-load breather tube had snapped clean off, and of course code reader confirmed i have P0174 system too lean, bank 2.


paper towel for photo contrast.

i also saw in torque a "historic fault" P0171 system too lean, bank 1. well, well! it looks like the partial-load breather also seems a bit wobbly on the valve cover side. i think that squeeze-connector, i don't know what they're called, has given up. so, it looks like i have an opportunity to perform a "PCV delete" (it's not really of course) by allowing the breathers to vent to atmosphere instead of recirculate. interestingly, after searching thoroughly for all related threads to this issue -- including the catch can ones -- i cannot find anyone reporting any results from attempting this and nobody has quoted the manual on any issues it might cause.

i was only able to find a single problem/diagnosis which suggests disconnected breathers can cause poor throttle response. anybody experiment with that?

meanwhile, i am patching the hole with JB weld and a thin aluminum plate so i can move the car around without destroying the engine.

 

jons,
Not familiar with a "PCV delete" for our 5.0L. But, I suspect that it would upset the engine control module "factory tune".
Why not use the JB weld to re-attach the plastic tee and renew wobbly parts?
Loctite Hysol worked great on plastic air duct for me.

 

I am surprised "bumps" caused this failure. While you're at it, how are the engine mounts?

 

well, i think i can just buy a replacement part if it has to be put all the way back to stock, rather than leave it in a state of DIY repair indefinitely. it's also possible to just slice this part in half and rebuild the upper part of the intake ducting with hoses and a Y-pipe.

thanks for the tip on hysol, i actually haven't heard of that before.

 

they are huge and i go over them as fast as i can with some quick pedal work, since i have to go over them so often. probably, this joint has been flexing for a while. it doesn't really look like all one mold, it looks like the standoff is vibration-welded to the duct during manufacture.

i don't want to rev the engine to do the mount check until the part is back in with the temporary fix, but, i plan to do that later today.

 

A PCV delete would actually be more complicated than it's worth, I looked into it at one point and found it would not realistically be possible. Same for the charcoal canister delete.

 

mounts absolutely shot, left side of engine leaps 2-3 inches upwards. time to figure out where to get those and how to do that!