Continuing on from the last post changing the spark plugs in my Holden Rodeo.

So what do the old plugs look like?

The old ones. You might not be able to see it in the photo, but all of these old ones have a little crack or 2 through the white insulator. That is no good.

Aye, Shiny. These look much better. 

So I got the plugs swapped over and all sorted. Then it was time to put it back together. This meant making a new gasket because I wanted to get this finished that day. I had a roll of gasket cork on hand so everything I needed.

 To make a gasket with this stuff you just need to trim to a close size of the face that you need to seal. Then you take a ball pein hammer and tap around the edge of the metal surface. This will trim the gasket material to the edge of the mating face. Do this around the outside and the inside of the surfaces.

Cutting out around bolt holes can be done with reasonably sharp scissors or if you have them using a hole punch set.

From what I understand when using a cork gasket it is ideal to have some kind of sealer to help it stick. This is the stuff to use. It does stick like the proverbial to a blanket. Particularly once it gets on your hands. But it will not harden so if the gasket flexes slightly then the sealant will keep it sealed.

The #3 comes with a brush. This makes it fairly easy to apply. But it is still very easy to get all over you. Paint it on the surface, wait a few minutes to get a bit tacky. Then apply gaskets.

Put everything back together, get a vacuum hose routed wrong. Then try to start the car and it doesn't work. It ran but not properly. Lifted the manifold off and the cork gaskets are all mangled up. At this point it was time to call it quits for the day. Turns out the screw holes were not good enough. Letting them in enough for good clearance would not leave enough cork for a good seal. So it was time for buying the proper thing.

I ordered these new gaskets from Supercheap online. According to them it would be 5-11 working days to be delivered. Joy oh joy. Thankfully I was able to find plenty of alternate transport options.

Getting new parts in the mail is always a good feeling. Unfortunately this requires waiting for the parts.

Thankfully with the right parts it was really quick to put everything back together. Probably about 10-15 minutes from getting the tools out to car running. This time with the vacuum hose run correctly. 

All buttoned up and running. 

The results:

Thankfully after this saga I took the ute for a drive and the problem is gone. Loading up the engine past where it would normally start to misfire and noting. The engine is not behaving as it should all through now. Very happy with this and glad that I have replaced these. I am looking forward to doing this sort of work on the Land Rover where this sort of work is designed to be done in the field easily and getting to this stuff is easy.

Cheers,

Rex