Intake Gaskets Replacement Findings

[Vegas Sporty]

So I'm mid steam with replacing my intake rubber intake gaskets on my 2001 Sport Trac. [See Pictures] I'm a little surprised about the amount of oil around the rubber gaskets. Wondering if this is normal? Engine runs decent but was having an intermittent stalling issue after being parked after driving in very hot weather. Very similar to the feel of a vapor lock. Truck never over heats and never burns oil so runs fine otherwise. Could this be a PVC valve failure? Sucking oil into the intake? Also wondering about the part on the front side [see picture] of intake which two small hoses from heater core feed into and one larger vacuum feeds around the back of engine to a PVC valve on driver side valve cover. Any sugestions?

 

[Vegas Sporty]

So anyway job completed. Runs fine. I did notice while removing some of the bolts which hold down the intake were not as tight as some of the others. Wondering if these eventually cause the gaskets to fail during hot restarts and maybe causing intermittent stalling. I thought I saw a mention of that these should be re-torqued (89 in.pd.) as a regular part of maintenance. Truck has 37k original miles. Is this the reason of why many modern cars (ex.Honda's) are putting oil catch cans of them hopefully catching some of this oil before it returns to the cylinders via the intake? I do use 100% synthetic oil (w5-30). Could this be the reason of this oil build up? Should I go back to non-synthetic? I also cleaned the PVC valve before re-install showed no signs of clogging.

 

[Larry Holmes]

So anyway job completed. Runs fine. I did notice while removing some of the bolts which hold down the intake were not as tight as some of the others. Wondering if these eventually cause the gaskets to fail during hot restarts and maybe causing intermittent stalling. I thought I saw a mention of that these should be re-torqued (89 in.pd.) as a regular part of maintenance. Truck has 37k original miles. Is this the reason of why many modern cars (ex.Honda's) are putting oil catch cans of them hopefully catching some of this oil before it returns to the cylinders via the intake? I do use 100% synthetic oil (w5-30). Could this be the reason of this oil build up? Should I go back to non-synthetic? I also cleaned the PVC valve before re-install showed no signs of clogging.

I’m sure the consensus is to stay full synthetic although I don’t have any other info on your other inquiries. But an interesting point is on re-torque of the intake. I don’t think that’s ever been done on my 04 ST except for a valve cover gasket replacement some years ago. Now at 162K miles I still drop a half quart every 6 month oil change under the engine from IDK where but I did find oil on top of the intake last year when I replaced the timing chain tensioners. It was mixed with coolant from a leaking plastic thermostat housing but I think that’s unrelated to the presence of oil. Let us know if there’s anything to that 89 in/lbs as a periodic process please.