Mikes valve cover leak is from running an air/ oil separator that is too restrictive. He knows this already. Thanks though (you havent changed) dm2

Motor definitely looks cleaner without all the junk in front of it..

Does the heater hose you removed in front of the block only supply the heater? Does removing it change the water circulation through the block or cylinder heads?

Ever think about polishing the cam covers?

haha the old cam covers. Yeah funny story. When you remove the cam covers there is a centering rubber/steel sleeved gasket. From experience I now know that you need to make 100% sure the cam sensors are in the pockets. Basically you need to have them in perfect or you will blow the center holes out of the front of the cover. I ruined one cover out of a set of perfect powder coated covers and am in the process of looking for new ones. The crossover tube in the front basically allows coolant to be supplied(from the top of the motor) rather than cooled coolant (from the radiator) straight to the top of the thermostat. The only bad part is getting the air pocket out (lower radiator) in order to allow coolant to reach the thermostat.

Wow, thanks for the tip. I was thinking about getting my cam covers polished, but I decided not to because i didn't want to take a chance on slowing down my engine project.

I've heard that it always difficult getting the air pockets out of the VQ engines. I'll have to check out you guys setup some day.

Thanks for all the info.