StkmltS

That'll be awesome if it fixes your problem! Which cat got changed? Did your mechanic say why it needed changed? That seems like an unusual diagnosis for a misfire.

I don't think it came back [fixed] because you can still hear and feel it misfiring. I guess the valve job and several hundred miles of steady highway driving was enough to clean things up a bit and keep the CEL from coming on. My misfire and low idle problems are still very much present. Yes I have the stock TMIC. Bummer, it was only a lose hose clamp on the throttle body hose. Maybe I didn't tighten it all the way when I put thinks back together after adjusting my valves. Back to the drawing board. Despite the motor issues I've been dealing with I must admit... after a wash, clay bar, and wax, it's a treat having a 10-year old car that looks this good.

Any thoughts about the appearance of my cylinder #2? I drove the car about 630 miles since Monday (trip to Pittsburgh) and about 100 miles into the trip the car developed a loud boost leak. If you listen very closely you can hear it hissing at >0 psi, and anything over 5 psi makes a super loud "pssssweeeee" sound. I just stayed out of boost the whole time and hoped nothing popped (it didn't). I didn't get one single CEL the whole trip, which was very surprising and fortunate because I forgot to bring my bluetooth OBD adapter and my OTG adapter. 600+ miles without cruise control would have sucked. I haven't found the leak yet but I'm pretty excited because it's another potential fix that's less time/money than #Inansb. I know I'm grasping at straws, but a guy's gotta have dreams. Here's my fun LV from this morning.

My clinder #2. The 90° attachment for my new borescope doesn't work well enough to see the cylinder wall. Despite that the camera is still easily worth the $20. It works great with my OTG cable on the two android devices i tried, and the free CameraFi app is excellent.

[ame=http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQNCMTY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00]This one[/ame] It'll be awesome if it works on my phone using the OTG cable I bought to use with BtSsm.

Have I ever mentioned how awesome Amazon Prime is? My $20 USB borescope will be here tomorrow and I'll check for scoring this weekend. The nice thing about having car problems is that I can justify buying all kinds of cool garage toys!

Ok I just thought of a new rule: No more talk of cracked ringlands, I can't handle it anymore :icon_cry:

Will there be scoring on the cylinder wall if I have a cracked ringland?

It consumes basically no oil. I'll go back and correct post #1. At first I though it was using a quart every 1500 miles because about 1500 miles post-purchase I added a quart. Since then I haven't had to add a drop. Even after losing a small amount of oil during my valve adjustment the overall level stayed at the high.

I did a DIY smoke test but I think I want to pay for the real deal before I rip off my intake manifold based on my results. The high trim #'s are somewhat encouraging. It gives me hope that I may not have to start a build thread.

No better than before. A couple weeks ago I thought my cam position sensor was leaking, but it turns out that it's actually my OCV. I took it out (for fun) when i swapped cam sensors so the OCV leak isn't too frightening. I was gonna mess with it at lunch but the rain convinced me otherwise. My LV from last night, about 90 miles post-bucket adjustment.

Per page ME(H4DOTC)-49 in the FSM I put them back on @ 22.1 ft-lb + 45°. I guess I just got lucky and mine came out so cleanly that putting them on was a breeze. Craftsman hex sockets FTW (this but NOT this)

I got mine on / off this past weekend without any issues or special "cam lock" tools. Trying to get the belt back on the sprockets was a royal pain until I did it how the FSM says. It's funny how well things can go when you follow instructions.

Tell me about it! I don't even have to go back to see what he said Also I'm buying your app this week.

Cold, hot, and everything in between. The misfire and low idle both show zero improvement after any amount of driving. After this past stretch of sitting in my garage the misfire was [still] present immediately after starting the engine. The valve adjustment does seem to have helped slightly... but most likely it's just me really really really really wanting to see an improvement.

Uh... I sorta forgot to recheck the clearance until everything was already back together The lower middle valve cover bolt broke off in the head, so when I deal with that problem (asap) I'll check the new clearances. I know I should have taken the extra time and removed the cover and checked the clearances, but I was really frustrated about my broken bolt so I said screw it for now.

This weekend I managed to get enough time to adjust my two cyl #2 exhaust valves and put everything back together. Clearance between the buckets and cam lobes for the two cyl #2 exhaust valves measured about .008" instead of the required .0138", so I ground the buckets down to my new desired thickness per the oh-so-affordable Heiche method found here. Good news: the engine runs. Bad news: the #2 cylinder is still misfiring. ???: It only seems to be misfiring (or detecting a misfire) at a low RPM. Installed new valve cover/spark plug gaskets, new idler pulley, new accessory belts, reused cam sprocket bolts (no problems), reused original TB due to budget constraints Pressure washed valve cover, cleaned TB covers. The log is a few minutes of driving around after letting the engine warm up. The file was a little too large to upload so I cut the data in half and made it into two files. The LV snapshot is after the drive. romraiderlog_20150705_214322_1.csv romraiderlog_20150705_214322_2.csv

I whispered soft nothings to my OEM FU cam bolts before trying to get them out and they came out without any issues! If they go back in as easily as they came out I don't see any reason to buy the TIC replacements. Buckets are out... wish me luck.

Stupid stupid stupid. I work about 15 minutes from Turn In Concepts (of TIC FU cam bolt fame) and they're all out of the F'ing FU bolts.

I just checked and my mic actually opens up to about 1.060" so i should be fine. The frame looks to be about 1" deep so I don't think I'll have any clearance issues measuring all of the way into the center-most point of the bucket. My mic

It looks like I'll be trying out the heiche method this Saturday morning as long as my TB and cam sprocket don't put up too much of a fight. Does anyone know the approximate overall height of our buckets? I'm not about to go out and buy a micrometer so I really need my [employer-owned] 0-1" mics to work.

Many of the timing belt walkthroughs I've found online mention locking the two driver side cam sprockets together so that they remain in position and the valves don't come into contact with the pistons. Why doesn't the FSM mention locking the cams in place? Don't answer that yet, I'm building up to my real question. I have to remove my TB this weekend so that I can remove one of my cams (valve/bucket adjustment), and now suddenly it's pointless for me to lock my cams in place because after the belt is off I obviously can't keep the cam sprockets locked together. Why is it recommended by so many internet people to lock the cams when changing a TB, but then to remove a cam sprocket it's irrelevant/impossible?

You'll be fine with what you have. There will always be something better that people on the internet tell you to use, but this is one of those fuzzy areas where preference and opinion often get confused for fact. How much money you have also seems to be a big factor on what the "best" options are

The threads are ruined on one of my turbo>DP studs, so I guess I should go with the extract-o method for my cam sprocket bolt since I need to buy an extractor kit for the turbo stud anyways. I can't imagine how I'll get my drill all the way down into the engine bay to make a hole for the extractor. Maybe I'll get lucky and my bolt wont smush. I can be convinced otherwise, but shouldn't a firm hold on the sprocket help prevent screwing up the bolt? In the past when I've jacked up bolts it was from when the socket kept slipping off the bolt head, thus rounding off the corners. FYI that particular Company 23 tool is different on each side, so one side for the intake and the other side for the exhaust. They also make tools that can only do the intake or exhaust sprockets. Why would anyone buy an intake OR exhaust tool instead of an intake AND exhaust tool?

That's def a good thread to read. If I can find a dedicated device to use and a good way to semi-permanently mount it I'll buy the app.