I put a new spider, and I noticed there was a bit of what looked like water in the passage shown.

The lower gaskets were done two years ago with the Felpro ones. I don't remember seeing any fluid in there then, but that was a hastily done job. Is this a problem? It's winter in Minnesota. Ideally, I'd like to wait if the lower gaskets need to be redone.

 

This is a 97 pictured. I dug around and found some old facebook photos and noticed the lower gasket leak had started in that area near the purge valve. For now, I'm going to buy a plenum gasket and see what's exactly getting in there when I change it. I don't think that any fuel would collect there, but no one's answered yet.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any advice.

 

You could pressure test the system and see if you lose pressure and look for leaks. It is doubtful that it is fuel back there.

You can also grab a small syringe and suck the fluid out to get a better look at what it might be.


Although you do already things taken apart this far...


As far as the plenum gasket goes, the one that is in there is reusable if not damaged. It is more or less an o-ring seal. So long as there are no nicks/tears in the seal and no debris up in the groove in the plenum or on the sealing surface of the LIM, it should seal back up just fine. If you wanted to hold off on doing the LIM gaskets, just replace that seal with the new one that comes with the new LIM gasket set.


As an aside, am I the only one that cringes whenever viewing a picture with the plenum or LIM off, but the fuel & return lines still in place on top of the motor?

 

Thanks for the reply.

It's been back together for about a week. I looked over the plenum gasket, cleaned the groove with a screwdriver and rag, and reinstalled. It wasn't pinched or split. Pretty solid advice on getting the whole set since I'll likely be back in there this spring.

As for the fuel lines? When we replaced lower gaskets couple years ago, I did leave it like that. Only... when I removed the plenum, the lines scraped off a nice bunch of crap into the ends like I figured. This pic shows right before a pressure test.