Bitch Tube Help

[rudy]

Hi all, I recently performed a smoke test which revealed a vacuum leak from the bitch tube. I assume that this is the cause of my bouncy and stumbling idle, as well as my horrible fuel economy at 18mpg. Due to my misunderstanding of the realoem diagram, I put a washer on both the top and bottom sections and found out that my oring on the top section was completely gone after I removed the manifold today. What makes this weird is that the smoke test showed a leak from the bottom of the tube rather than the top. I ordered new orings and plan to just do it again the proper way in hopes that it will fix this vacuum leak, but read about some people using RTV to seal this tube better. Does anybody mind elaborating on this? I could only find someone recommending to coat the bottom oring in RTV. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Vincenze]

Nothing is wrong about using something like REINZOSIL on both ends.

You must follow the special procedure, though.
Use zip-ties to compress the spring. Install it in the bottom hole.
When the manifold is installed, you can add REINZOSIL to the o-rings, slowly insert the tube up into the manifold hole, check the o-rings, and then cut the zip-ties.
It's actually possible to do it when the manifold is installed and the spring is compressed - then you'll have more time.

[Jorgosas]

Personally I didn't use anything on it but the o-rings themselves. What I did was make sure the o-rings were lubed up with some silicon spray. Then did the usual zip tie trick and it ended up seating perfectly with no leaks. It is a pain in the ass and took a couple of tries and a couple of beers tho! Good luck👍

[rudy]

Thanks guys! Hopefully all goes well this time around.

[IS300E30]

Thanks guys! Hopefully all goes well this time around.

Hey, just checking to see if there is an update? Did it solve your idling problem? If so, what was the idling problem (what did you mean by bouncy)? And how is it now?

[rudy]

Hey, just checking to see if there is an update? Did it solve your idling problem? If so, what was the idling problem (what did you mean by bouncy)? And how is it now?

Sorry, by bouncing I just meant that my tach was surging constantly due to the vacuum leak, They dropped down to 500 and went up to 1800 constantly.

This did end up solving my problem though. I slid the o-rings on and coated them with RTV, putting the top side of the tube in first. Then I cut the zip ties allowing the bottom to get seated and rotated it a few times to ensure a good seal. Started it after 24 hours and my rpms stayed at 1k when idling now. Would recommend just smoke checking before to make there this is the area of your leak though.