I've also waited atleast overnight.

 

The tutorials state that you should change your oil before starting the vehicle. What I don't get is how exactly that helps. Any grime/dirt that I knocked into the valley and intake ports isn't going to be sitting in my oil pan, right? It almost makes more sense to me to run it for a few minutes and then shut it off and do the change. But then again I'm a very novice car guy. I know for a fact that some crap fell into the ports when I was scraping etc. Any advice on the matter?

 

Changing the oil is incase any coolant makes its way down to the oil. Coolant in the oil is very bad.

As far as the dirty/grime goes, well, you should be working with rags down in the lifter valley while cleaning things up. I always take a shop vac to the valley before setting the intake back down on as well.

 

Well, I finally got the manifold seated. Although after about an hour I realized I had overtorqued when I double checked my torque wrench. I loosened and re-torqued properly. Hope no permanent damage was done. I torqued it to 240 inch pounds instead of 132. So almost double. I think my heart fell into my a** at that point, and I scrambled to re-torque to 132 (11 ft-lbs). After all that work just to possibly botch up the whole thing. It's 1:30 AM now, so I'm going to get some rest and finish putting parts on tomorrow. I have to admire you mechanics (pro and amateur) who aren't afraid to dive in and do this stuff. Thanks again, swartlkk.

 

Glad to help!

 

OK, well, I got everything back on tonight. Changed the oil and filter. Added coolant. Hooked up the battery. Said a prayer. It turned over a bit, then fired up! I was very pleased. Shut it off after a few minutes of running around looking for leaks. When I turned it back on, I got the check engine light. If I tap quickly on the gas, the truck dies, then struggles to restart. If I ease onto the gas, it'll go. I'm assuming it just needs to be driven for a while maybe? After a few restarts, the check engine light did shut off. But it still dies if I tap the gas. I test drove it around the block and killed it at a stop sign went I tried to go.

Problem #2. Tachometer no longer works.

Wee! This is getting more and more fun!

 

with the tach did you happen to disconnect it by chance maybe and also it may have to be driven or at least ran for a lil bit the plugs might be fouled up but when my intake manifold went i got alot of oil and coolant thats was mixed up down into the combustion chambers i let it run for a while watching the temp and let it clear out it took a lil bit but it did and then i changed my plugs and it runs like a champ. hope that helps a lil bit plus if its dying when you give it gas it might not be getting enough maybe check your pressure

 

Sounds like theres a vacuum leak. Get some starter fluid or brake parts cleaner and spray it around the hoses/tb/intake and if the motor ramps up (revs up) you may have a vac leak

 

I kind of said this in a different thread, but my problem is that it dies if doing a hard take off, also has trouble starting. My service engine light is on, so I took it to Autozone and they diagnosed it as a bad crankshaft sensor, but the manager there said it's most certainly the timing, that I am one tooth off on my distributor. I don't know how or if that effects the tach, but I'm going to take it into a shop. I'm about done spending time on it. But it was quite the learning experience!

 

Verify your distributor wiring harness is conencted all the way. Take it off and put it back on again. This wiring harness gives the signal to the tach, plus it provides timing information for the puter. The wire will be had to reach and will be between the distriburator and firewall on the dirvers side of the distriburator.

The crank position sensor is located off the crank pullet (big pulley on the bottom front of the engine). Look for it, and verify the wiring harness is also connected to it.

Sounds to me like you didn't get all your wires reconencted, or conencted properly.

One other tip. Anytime you mess witht eh fuel system or run out of gas, always turn the key to run a dozen or so times before you actually try to start the engine. This will make sure the fuel system is full of fuel and purge all the air out of the lines.