Leak in manifold? pls confirm

[Apoc]

Ok peoples, i have the following symptoms and am pretty convinced i have a leaking inlet manifold gasket just looking for a few people to go yep sounds like thats it. so i can fork out my cash on the right thing.

Symptoms:

1. Car seems to be idling high, suggesting some sort of vacuum leak

2. When i turn the engine off i hear a hissing (blowing or sucking) of air from engine somewhere

3. I have freshish oil sitting on the flat at the back of the motor below the TB
which as far as i can tell would only come from around the gasket to the intake manifold?

4. Spluttering a bit at idle.

Cheers, Simon.

[xcop5l]

i would recomend it being the booster or the hose going to it. just check arround it for that hissing sound when ist running

[immortality]

can you hear a slight whistling sound underthe bonnet?? quotingthe gregories manual "run some oil around the gasket, if the sound goes away, or you see bubling etc you have found your leak" also check all the vacuum lines going/coming from the throttle body especially the one going to the MAP sensor. the oil under th e throttle body may be coming from the rocker/tappet cover gasket, this is quiet a common on older engines.

[VNV6VENGEANCE]

Take it off anyway. I had a leaking inlet manifold gasket on mine and it was making a f*cked up idle sound and would sort of lose power at low revs. Mechanics will want a good 250 to change it over so do it yourself and save heaps of cash and also get some well needed cleaning done on your manifold. I got so much shit off the bottom of mine. would have done wonders for the airflow once it was clean..

[immortality]

could do that also, you might as well have a good look down the intakes of the heads and see what they look like, might be worth the time to take the heads off clean/de-carbon the intake/exhaust ports/valves, lap the valves etc

[Apoc]

Cheers all for your input, i have checked all the vacuum hoses etc and they all seem fine as for whistling noises well the car sort of sounds like a turbine :my: (only way i can describe the sound) when the revs are up i dont know whether this is what people call induction noise or what but i might even be disappointed if this sound goes away.

I have decided that i will replace the inlet manifold gaskets and the rocker cover gaskets aswell i will prolly end up doing it myself as the gaskets and sealant are gonna cost me ~$80 and yeah i got a quote for $230.

BTW should i make sure my sealant is oxy sensor safe and what operating temp am i lookin at pretty much as high as it gets im guessing...?

Also once i get the manifold off will it be okay to give it a blast with some degreaser from the compressor then rinse this off? I intend to fully dry the water etc b4 reinstalling.... or is there a better way?

As for taking the heads off and lapping valves im too much of a chicken to do that this will be the first time i have seriously attacked the mighty V6, i know its sad but i need to build myself up for this anyway and pray i dont fck anything up. I had some good and bad experiences with screwing around with the motor in the old Honda Accord i had and when i screwed it up i could walk to work for the cash to fix it now i have to drive ....

Apoc out.

[VNV6VENGEANCE]

I don't know using the degreaser on the inlet manifolds interior but get some rough sand paper and give i the whole bottom of it a scrub. So much crap comes off it.