aftermath of valve cover gaskets replacement 3.4 l

HI there,
I replace the gaskets but now the engine starts rough sometimes, more likely when the engine is warm. It starts and sputters, shaky and woff, woff sound from the pipe like it is dying. Continues to drive off like it has no power, but eventually run smooth after five minutes of driving.
But most morning it runs smooth, no problems...
what could be the cause of the problem?
- I did fushed the hole with water, in the valve cover that has the PCV that goes into it. I left it a day in the sun to dry , but there could be some drips of water still left inside that hole, would this be acuase? Please note I have been driving the car for a week now.
Thanks

 

i had a similar issue this past week... idles fine but on acceleration it would sputter and shake the truck... once driving it was ok but during acceleration it would sputter... turned out to be a misfire on 4... bad plugs and wires... swapped it all out and cleaned the MAF and it runs better than it has in months... it was gradual... once it warmed up, it wouldn't sputter so bad, but the longer i waited to fix, the worse it got...

 

thanks, I'll check but i just put new wires and plugs in.

 

double check the gap in case one is not in there correctly... could be something simple like that...

is your MAF clean? there are two parts of it that need to be cleaned...

 

just cleaned the maf, will pull the plugs this weekend to check. but they new two weeks before the job.

 

Same happened to me. New plug wires did it

 

hmmmm. I had the same thing. Needed a new 'lower boot' on 1 coil.

 

how can you tell it is the boot?

 

Not by looking at it.
Was getting a code for that cyl. mis firing. Swapped coils and the code moved.
Bought a new cheap coil just to get it going just for giggles swapped the boot over. Voila, it was fixed.
Boots are cheap. if yours have over 100K miles or so just buy some new ones.
I had changed to new wires at the same time (from Toyota)but boots were not included, that was crappy.
BTW it took a while to start throwing codes. I was stumped at first.

 

update, the sluggish starts now have developed into an engine random misfires code po300. what is up? a vacuum leak? Got to find find a weekend to pull th plug plug see as well

 

Tape up the boots below the coils and see if stops arcing out.
My boots were doing fine 'til I pulled them loose to do the Vlv. Cr.'s, then they leaked voltage.....well 1 did any way. You may have more.

 

Update;

Engine slugish often after 10 minutes of driving. Cylinder # 4 missfires came one.
I pulled the plugs out, no leak of oil, no noticeable fouling on the plugs. And re-tighten the vacuum hoses. Lets see how she does tomorrow. I found some hoses loose, and a little nick in one of the hoses.