I'm still looking for the cause of my stuttering/hiccuping engine problem - poked around some more and cleaned up the fuel lines a little bit and noticed that sitting with the engine off, there is about an inch of air up in the clear line by the pre filter. Is this normal? I have a set of fuel lines and SOV o-ring on order in case there is a subtle air leak. The lines now look rather old, and that particular fuel line is pretty dark amber, so the air was hard to see. They could all stand to be replaced.

Further questions - it looks like I have to take the whole intake manifold off to get everything. Is that true? If so, is there some sort of gasket underneath it, or does it just mate up to the head? Also - is there a torque spec on the torx bolts? I have had experience over tightening steel bolts into aluminum things...Also - is there a torque spec on the bolts on the SOV housing?

Previous posts mention the cheesy plastic CCV tubes which become embrittled over time - these were replaced last year when I had some work done under there regarding those darn resonator flaps, so if I'm gentle enough they should be OK. While indy mechanic was there, would have been a simple job to replace the old fuel lines, but I guess sometimes there's a judgment call to just fix what's wrong and not go crazy and getting into everything.

Thanks,

__________________
Charlie

---------------------------
'66 VW 1300 96K miles
'97 E300D 239K miles
'85 300D 203K miles (sold Sep 2012)