Fast way to do 3x00 intake gaskets

[rx191]

prophiseer has asked me to share my secert for doing lower intake manfold gaskets on these engines, if you follow these instuctions you should be able to do these intakes in less than an hour, THIS IS ONLY FOR PROFESSIONALS, the back yard mech should not try this unless they know what they are doing.

1. Get vehicle in bay and drain water out of it, while draining remove all upper plemum blots and map sensor, air cleaner and duct work (leave throttle linkage on maifold) and undue 2 bolts from coil braket, 2 hoses under thottle body, and remove egr pipe (leave egr on intake). next flip upper intake over some where on drivers side of car it will move plenty to get out of your way.

2. Remove power sterring pump bolts and position pump to side of passenger fender.

3. Remove Water cross over tube from water pump and postion it over with upper intake.

4. Remove 2 bolts from fuel rain and remove bolt from head holding fuel lines, lift out fuel rail complete with lines attached and carfullly position it over with upper intake and water pipe, the ass. will go over there just fine, and if you have it in the right spot it will stay there, and be plenty out of your way. then lossen the bolt for the heater hose in the manifold and slid the pipe out of the manifold.

5. Remove the front valve cover and rockers and pushrods

6. Get a 8mm wrench and lossen the 2 top valve cover bolts on the back valve cover, they will loosen just enough for you to finsh undoing them by hand and be out of the manifold, and the alt and coil packs stay in place with the vavle cover.

7. Remove lower manifold, after all the bolts are out you can roll the manifold out, as standing in front of the vehicle you will roll it towards you to clear the rear valve cover, it will come right out.

8. Get a 10mm wrench and losen all the back rockers and remove the pushrods, now you can remove the rear gasket

9. clean all surfaces

REassmebly

1. Use silicone and put a small dab under the gaskets for the rear valve cover, and install the rear gasket. then install the pushrods and tighen the rocks on the rear

2. Instal front gasket and pushrods and rockers. apply silcone to block

3. Take the lower manifold and cearfully roll the manifold done into place as you removed it, if you do it right the back corner will just touch the silcone and be inplace, then tighten all the lower bolts and then the rear valve cover bolts. and contuine in reverse order as you took it apart.

4. After the engine is back together and running put the coolant in the engine.


these is a small trick for this too, get an old radiator cap and drill a hole in it and put a funnlel in the hole very tightly and get something to fit the in the hole to force coolant into the enigne, fill the resivor and open the bleeder and then fill the funnle and force coolant into the engine untill full. and your done.
hope that is a helpfull at making this job aneasy one, sorry for the bad spelling i'm not a very good speller

[prophiseer]

alright, man - I understand that proc. And by those methods you can prob pull it off in an hour . . . on certain apps. I'm not going to rag on you over it, cause to each his own.

But, I would like to also add my input for anyone else that might consider this method, too. Personally, I still wouldn't use this method in a shop environment, because even though my time is money; this method might lead to certain comebacks I'd much rather take care of while I'm in the motor, instead of it coming back. I'll cover that, though . . .

Certain applications, you'll have to disconnect the front motor mount, and remove the mount bracket entirelly to loosen and remove the P/S pump (i.e. 3400 GA's), also, certain applications I would highly recommend completely disconnecting and removing the fuel rail (also, 3400 GA's - the fuel lines are steel lines from the tranny up, and are bracketed to the motor, all the 90* bends in the line are already somewhat flatened, you don't want to pinch the line by accident). As for me, seeing as how the valve covers are right there, and usually the factory gaskets are starting to leak oil by the time the LIM gasket needs replacing, it's a sound practice to just go ahead and do them, they're quick and easy. Personally, if ever I loosen a rocker, no matter what motor it's in, I don't let it leave without knowing for certain that it's properly re-torqued. Too tight will cause problems, as will too loose. Same goes with the LIM bolts themselves, too tight and you'll crack the gaskets, too loose and they won't seal. Certain apps, the EGR line is best left alone, and just remover the EGR from the UIM (older models, the EGR line likes to break). There's more I can go into with small things here and there, but that's not my point, and most of us techs prob already know of the idiosyncricies with these jobs.

Anyways, I just want to stress for anyone else considering this method, just give it some thought - that's all. If you're comfortable with it, then sure, go ahead.

I can offer this, too, for bleeding the coolant on the genIII motors w/ a pressurized reservoir: completely fill the reservoir with coolant, open the water pump bleeder until you have a steady stream flowing, close; open the bleeder at the termostat until it flows steady, close; open the bleeder at the pump again, close; fill the reservoir about 1/4-1/2" above the cold-fill line, throw the cap on it. Start the motor and run for about 15min, shut off; slowly crack the reservoir cap to bleed the pressure, with no pressure remove; open the pump bleeder again, close; then the termo bleeder, close; top off the coolant to about 1/4" above the cold fill line, cap it and call it a day.

[onefastV6]

I agree, it is damn near impossible to get the PS pump bolts out of a N-body without removing the passanger side engine mount plate.

When I have worked on my engine, I have never had a problem with swinging the fuel rail out of the way. I just undo the bolt that holds the fuel lines located on the head.

One of my tricks that I will share is that instead of using RTV sealant in the ridge, I cut silicone rubber gaskets to the shape of the valley out of a sheet of 3/32" silicone. Then smear a light coat of RTV on the back to hold them in place along with a dab where it meets to the LIM gasket on the head. Once torqued to spec there are no worries about letting it dry and it seals very well. Best of all a 6"X6" sheet of silicone costs about $6.50 and you can get 3-4 jobs out of a sheet.

[rx191]

yes your right don't try this if you are not very comforatble with the job, it is not for a amature. also on the N bodys i can get the bolt out without removeing the engine plate, all you need is a very thin wall 13mm swivle socket like the ones from matco, use the 1/4 drive one and you can get to it, it's not easy but it's faster than doing the motor mount, the last one i did this one was a 2002 malibu and a 98 alreo.

[tractorman]

Interesting thread here. That's damn impressive to do a LIM gasket job in an hour. I wouldn't do it that way on my own vehicle, of course... but as a long-time diesel mechanic, I also know that time is money. If you can do the job in an hour and it doesn't come back, then tha more power to ya! Just out of curiosity, how much labor time does that job generally pay? My guess is 5-6 hours, in which case you're makin' a killin'.

Good tip about the p/s bolts. I'll give that a try if I have to do the same job on my old '94 Corsica again someday (changed the LIM gaskets years ago, long before ANYBODY had come out with improved gaskets... so I may have to do it all over again in several years). That motor mount setup is a PITA.

OnefastV6- where do you buy that silicon stuff? I don't know that I'd personally use it on the LIM ends (as I'm in no hurry when I do that job on my own stuff), but that rubber could be useful for lots of things.

[onefastV6]

OnefastV6- where do you buy that silicon stuff? I don't know that I'd personally use it on the LIM ends (as I'm in no hurry when I do that job on my own stuff), but that rubber could be useful for lots of things.

You can get the Silicone sheets at http://www.mcmaster.com, the silicone sheet that I used was orange and is rated to 600+ degrees.

Basically it is along the same lines as the new 3500 valley gaskets.

I am personally not a big fan of using RTV if it can be avoided.

[prophiseer]

Book pays I think 5-6hrs. depending on the app; most shops I know of (ours included) bump another hour for prep time and clean up, etc.

Personally, when it comes to the valley seals - I use tube silicone (the clear kind you can get from any hardware store, not caulk) and put a big-ass line of the stuff across the valley, making sure it's also on the LIM gaskets. Also, I usually smear a thin layer of silicone around both sides of the colant veins in the gaskets, for some extra help. I also will clean the LIM bolt threads and then I'll put a small amount of silicone on these, too (especially the vertical bolts, as they can be known to leak oil). Same with the valve cover gaskets, once seated, I'll put a thin layer of silicone on these (amazing stuff, silicone is! Not only can we use one form of it to seal motors, but we can use another form to upgrade breasts! Most versatile element in the world, ha!)

I guess it all comes down to personal preference, really. Me, I try to help the customer out as much as possible, because a customer that trusts my work and is happy with the completed job is 100% more likely to request me for their next issue.

Like I said, I wouldn't use this method on a customer's vehicle . . . but some of our wholesale cars that just get shoved back out to auction - that's a different story; I've cut corners on these before (i.e. if you're comfortable with it, leave the steel coolant lines attached to the TB, and remove the TB from the UIM with linkage and heater lines attached.), and on other stuff - no need to care when the vehicle is going to be bid-off, right?

[gectek]

on an 02 grand am...yah i like to check the lifters while i am in there and take a good look at the cam lobes, look at the springs/seals and look at the injectors to make sure they are ok and the injector nozzles are in good shape, and also i dont take the injectors off the LIM, i just take off the lines and leave them in, then clean the UIM and LIM to near perfection with carb cleaner or anything else, and make sure it looks ok. also i like to clean the TB just for good measure. also even on my GA, the EGR tube is a little brittle, so i would def take if off the UIM before i disconnected it from the exhaust. also i do a good through cleaning of the pushrods and rockers and lifters. maybe im just a little anal bout it, but it makes me feel better.

good work on cheating the man though...lol
stick it to 'em

[alerored04]

definately take the egr off the manifold rather than the line out of the egr on the 99+ motors. The one on my 01 alero was so damn brittle and soft that it got bent to all hell and i had a bitch of a time getting it back together. Would have saved me a big headache if i would have done it that way.

[ihatemygrandamg]

Ive always thought about doing it this way, and posted about it over on gagt.com; but yet people said that it couldnt be done. I didnt see how it couldnt though.

By not having to remove the rear lalve cover, you dont have to remove the coil mounting bracket,alternator,alternator support bracket and tensioner and all...really does save alot of time.

[torq455]

hahahaha, an hour to do all that!!! i remember GM quoted me 8 hours to my 94 3.1. yeah, and what's the risk of screwing up the old rocker cover gasket by rolling the LIM in? short cuts have never really worked for me. i'd rather do it right the first time, even if it takes me another 3 hours.

[jturkey69]

are these rocker arms "tight equals adjusted"?, or do I need to adjust lash?
im not new to engines, just this one, and yes the pushrods will be correct in order they were taken out

[gectek]

no torque to spec of 124 in lbs and then 30* turn for correct preload and adjustment. the lash is taken up by hyd press in the lifter.

[prophiseer]

although, if you can torque to spec with a 10mm box end wrench, as this procedure calls for, then you should donate your elbow to medical science for study

[gectek]

well i have heard of a calibrated elbow, but id rather use the appropriate 6 point socket.