Originally Posted by CleanSC

Angel... Hermano...

Don't have any regrets. The 1UZ is legend and everyone should experience it at least in one car they own in their lifetime. 2JZ's are all fine and dandy. I have one in my SC (love it too) but had a 1UZ in my former GS400 with a full complement of mods. I love my 2JZ but that 1UZ... I will miss it. There's plenty to be said for a nice simple NA V8 with intake and exhaust. Gave me goosebumps every time I started it up.

Enjoy it. It will be worth it in the end.

Originally Posted by FrankT

Thanks for sharing your adventure with your GS.

Nice job moving forward on this.
It must be incredibly nice for you to have some closure on this.

You will no doubt be victorious tackling your electrical issues...

Originally Posted by PTYGS400

From last night´s episode of this saga... Trying to find the vaccum leak, I found loose bolts on the lower intake manifold. I tightened them up but it was too late to finish the reassembly.

Today...

Got more cigarettes and smoked the intake again. Still lots of smoke coming out from bank #2.
Got the whole intake manifold out. And found a bolt nut sitting between the head and the intake. What a nice "spacer"!!!, the perfect size to keep the intake manifold from seating on the head. On the plus side, I am glad it didn´t fall into the intake port....

Removed the nut, put the whole thing back together and....

http://youtu.be/MPxyX0Q7eAA

I am so happy, it`s been lots of work, many hours, many late nights, a lots of hard thinking.
Thank you guys for all the support, It really makes a difference to me having knowledgeable people giving me ideas and valuable information.

I still have issues to solve.... the gauges, the hard wired fans, alignment, shifter rod adjustment, low oil light going on and off. But thats all minor stuff. My engine purrs like a kitten!

Thank you all.

Originally Posted by angus

Funny thing how it goes - you actually found this issue a long time ago and kept looking elsewhere - in reality as soon as you saw smoke out of the one bank on the intake - off it should have come, but you kept looking at other stuff, getting sidetracked.

A few things made me look elsewhere. First, I know nothing about the trouble history of this car, only know that it was having issues before the engine blew up. Second, this is the first time I use the smoke technique for leak detection. Third, this vaccum leak was so huge that I didn`t act as a vaccum leak! I thought I had a combination of faults making the engine run like that.

I have fallen into this trap too, you get "tunnel vision" .

I am super glad you found the problem as I am currently using the exact same motor to swap into my latest project GS.

- I think it's a Celsior motor right? It has the hydro fan pump.