Q:I have a 1989 Jeep Cherokee with 218,700 miles on it and my engine has thick oily gunk on it, possibly from a leaky valve cover gasket, should I change the gasket? I have been told that this is normal and not to worry about, but from the amount of this gunk, I find it hard to believe this is normal. The top of the valve cover has a light covering of gunk, but on the sides and towards the bottom of the engine. it gets very thick and at some places you can't even make out whats suppose there. Does a leaky valve cover gasket mean that there is another problem going on?Can leaving the oily gunk on the engine cause any problems?Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Not to be mean but you can't work on what you can't see! Take the Jeep to a wand type car wash with a bag of quarters. Lift the hood and spend some time with high pressure soap and clean the entire engine and under-hood compartment. Don't bother covering anything. Leaking valve covers don't mean anything is wrong, it just makes a nasty mess. Remove valve cover/s and scrape old gasket material of the head/s and cover/s. The best valve covers in the world won't seal until the valve cover/s are completely flat. *This is an age old problem with stamped steel covers. If you want to get extra slick, chase down some aluminum cover/s. There stiffer and less apt to leak when you snug them back down. I'll let you in on a racers secret to make them seal. Buy a tube of Dow Corning or Permetex clear RTV silicone sealer. Scrape down the valve cover gasket surface till it's clean. Wipe the gasket surface down with CRC Brake Clean. Run a bead of the clear RTV on the valve cover and let it set-up for at least five minutes. Lay a Fel-Pro - Blue Stripe valve cover gasket on the valve cover. Seat it with your thumbs. Scrape-down the cylinder head where the gasket goes till it's perfectly clean. Clean the gasket seating surface on the cylinder head with C5RC Brake Clean. Lay a small bead of the RTV on the outside of the gasket which will meat the cylinder-head. Carefully set the cover on the head and gently alternately tighten them. It's OK to drive the vehicle as soon as you're done!

Q:1990 Pontiac Sunbird, I took a piece of hose going to the egr valve to try and see if it is working properly, but with car off, I can suck through, and blow out into hose going to egr valve, and it doesn't seem like there's any seal stopping air flow either way...is it supposed to, or what is this supposed to do?

a good egr valve should be tested when idle. when idle, remove the hose on the egr valve and replace it with a hand-held vaccum pump. by applying pressure, the engine should idle rough or die. if so, the egr is working properly. if it doesn't respond or it doesn't hold any pressure, the egr is bad. if it holds pressure but there is no sign of rough idle, egr is clogged. (my husband is an automotive technician/smog technician)

Q:i have got a problem with the valve but i have some guy gonna try and clean it next week. i have heard of blanking plates. has anyone used one of these? do they make any difference in the way the car goes ?

Think okorder . Go on line an read: Function EGR Valve before you ruin the engine with a block-off plate.

Q:I am modelling the production of phthalic annhydride and my process has a lot of FIC, LIC, PIC notations in circles on the connections. Moreover there are what i think are temprature and pressure notations in a square and a triangle. But most primarily what does a pneumatic valve do?

pneumatic valves use pressurized gas (Air, nitrogen) to operate.A simple example if you are monitoring the level of a vessel in a process the indicator for level (LI) tells you remotely what the level is. If you need to keep the level stable the level indicating controller (LIC) sends a signal to the regulator on the Pneumatic Valve which provides air to open or close the valve depending on what the vessel level set point is. the FIC (flow indicating controller) PIC (pressure) TIC (tempurature) are all instrumentation used to compare a set point parameter against a measured process variable and send a signal to control the valve to maintain the set point

Q:I need to find a solenoid valve with the following specifications:2-way, 1 inch nozzles (both male)needs to be able to handle the pressure from a CO2 tank (~1000 psi)needs to work with 12vdc less than 10 ampsits either a solenoid, or some other type of valve which will release the CO2 when we tell it to electronically

The leading maker of solenoid valves is ASCO. Their website is shown below. If a valve that fits your application exists they probably make one. If you can't find a suitable solenoid then you need to consider a pneumatic valve operated by a solenoid valve. That is a common solution for a problem like yours. As to the male connections. If they are not available then you can just use a pair of threaded fittings (pipe nipples) to change the configuration.

Q:1998 Ford Crown Victoria LX 4.6L Use 89 Octane BP, Shell, Chevron gas. When the engine is under stress(acceleration or going up incline) the engine sounds like the valves are chattering. I can increase the rpm's and the chattering goes away. Had the same problem with 95 Thunderbird 4.6 and have heard other ford cars going down the road with this problem. Air leak? Don't really want to use higher octane due to gas prices and possible engine damage. Also, in the thunderbird, i used a bottle of octane boost and the next day a valve spring broke. Was the octane boost a possible cause?

it is not valve chatter, it is called Pinging, it is a fairly common problem, what it is caused by is hot spots in the engine, or by overly advanced spark timing, i would check your base timing, perhaps even back it off a degree or two, i would also run a bottle of marvel mystery oil, or gm top engine cleaner through a vacuum line to burn out the crud that has built up, the sum total of these repairs: about 15 bucks, the savings: your engine! as for your t-bird, it was the pinging that broke the valve spring, not the tank of hi octane. hope this helps

Q:what are the symptoms of bad egr valve??? My car is shaking on idle.. Tune up with all has already been done.

Have the vehicle's computer tested for free at VIP Auto,AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts and see what trouble codes it shows while check engine light is on.

Q:What exactly is a flow valve for an ice maker on a refrigerator? Any idea what it would cost to replace it? Is it easy to replace?

sophisticated situation. look on to yahoo. just that can assist!

Q:whaT ARE THE SYMPTON OF A BAD EGR Valve Position Sensor loss of power ?1998 toyota camry v6

Typically when those sensors start to go bad, the EGR valve doesn't modulate properly between open and closed. When that happens you usually notice a sort of fluttering in the power delivery, often when cruising at a set speed but sometimes also when accelerating as a result of the wrong amount of exhaust gas being recycled back into the engine. You sometimes will notice a loss of power when accelerating as well. If the EGR valve is opening more than necessary it will be allowing more exhaust gas back into the engine than is beneficial....and that will reduce the amount of power the engine produces. If the EGR valve is staying closed more than necessary, you might not notice as many driveability issues but you'll probably notice your average fuel mileage decreasing a little and/or a check-engine light being triggered and/or a failure of an emissions test (even if the check engine light hasn't tripped) if you live somewhere that emissions checks are required.

Q:Cylinder head valves.Can't really differentiate the difference between burnt and just carbon build up on valves. Are they the same?If I the valves have no cracks or holes, can I clean the carbon off of them and reuse them.If they don't leak when I re-leak test them, are they then good to use?Had very little compression in one cylinder.What cleaner is safe to use on the valves?I know I should replace all, but any money I can save right now, helps a lot.Also I seen a method of re-lapping the valves by using a tool (stick with a suction cup on end that sticks to valve surface) that you spin while valve is seated. It refinishes the seat and recreates the seal/re-laps. Appears to work and seal just fine. Anything really wrong with this method?

undamaged okorder