how much of a PITA is this to repair?
a friend is asking me to help fix his…
reading up, it looks like 4-6 hours of work… meaning for a first time, its probably gonna take~ 10 start to finish
what is it a 2.8/3.1/3.4/3.5/3.6 motor? theres alot you really dont need to take off to do it, ive done them in about 2-3 hours on good days, and if you have the rocker arm tool it goes even faster… what it in?
they are not bad. pretty generic. I usually do an oil change after to bleed the lifters
its a 3.4 i think from an 03 grand am GT…
yea common problem, i think every single one i get in is leaking/seaping either oil or coolant, find someone with the rocker arm tool or find snap on therye super cheap… saves having the remove the alt, rear valve cover, coils and other crap in the way…
Good times. If you don’t want to do it and need someone to do it let me know.
Which rocker arm tool are you talking about
not soo bad but figure maybe an afternoon, also get a good scraping razr blade, lotsa old gasket to scrape
first one i found, i got mine from snap on its probably bluepoint…
if you really dont feel like doing it, buy the upper gasket set and ill do it cheap… its like a 5.5 hour job if you look up book time… the parts are like 60 bucks i think, figure 200 for parts and job, if the parts havent gone up…
ok i lied its like 47-90 bucks for the gasket set on advanced… the only other things id buy is maybe a new t stat and any other gasket you want changed while its apart…
Simple, takes me an 1 1/2 hours now. I have done it 4 times on my olds, and many more times on other cars. Use the upgraded gasket kit…Felpro makes it.
As for the rocker arms just torq them down with a wrench, i never actualy used a torq spec, just untill my air rachet stopped.
odd you did it 4 times…
had to do it every 30k until they came out with an upgraded gasket kit, which is now the final fix.
How many miles are on her?
May want to tear it down to the heads as well, since those are pretty prone to leaking nearly as much as the LIM failure.
There was actually a lawsuit against GM (which GM lost) and you can get money back for it if you have receipts of all work and shiiit.
But I’m 90% sure it’s past the date required.
I did it the first time on my 99 a long while back when it was leaking, just did the LIM… But ended up having to tear it all the way back down to the heads as well.
Probably took 3 evenings total… ~4 hours a day. (for the first tear down, got pretty quick after that!)
i work slow. :]
and it saved… money.
saved the GF money when i did her 3400 as well (on a monte carlo)
edit;
Tstat, plugs, wires, and water pump are all good to do if they haven’t been done before or recently.
no way this will take 10 hours ever. 3 hours and thats with super cleaning the manifolds and all. I have the rocker arm tool. There’s a few tricks to doing it but i won’t give those out as thats how i make money.
I did it on my 99 GA SE and it took about 6 hours. It’s a lot of shit to remove. There is a great write up online on one of the forums. I don’t remember where it was but it helped a ton.
yea if anyone is not up to date on why…GM’s 3.4 engines SUCK!
if you need the tool let me know. you can borrow mine.
I have an 02 SE that needs it done if anyone is looking to make a little Christmas cash.
On a scale from 1 to 10 this is about a 7. It really is not hard. There is just a bunch of things to take off. Definitely go with the Fel-Pro kit. It is also a good idea to replace the Thermostat while you are in there. Occasionally the Head Gasket can also go so I would just take a quick peak to make sure it is not “squeezed” out along the block.
Also, check the water pump. These have a tendency to go every 60K or so. There is a weep hole on the pulley and the Dexcool eats away the grease on the bearings causing it to grind and eventually fail. Most people think the serp. belt is the culprate for the screething sound but it is usually the water pump.
Lastly, depending on milage you may want to put in some new plugs. With the top of the motor off it is really easy to get those back plugs.
FYI…This can potentially lead to your new gasket failing, no? IMO, It is harder to line everything up with an extra 15 pounds of shit in the way. It is not that much more time to remove the Alternator, Coils, and Valve Covers. I can see that does save time though. I just never tried it.
When changing the head gaskets people always put the rods in wrong, they are different sizes for exhaust and intake. This will lead to a bent exhaust or intake valve.
not really, its not like your putting anything in the way, when i have 2 or 3 of these jobs to do in a day, ya the more you can leave on the more you can make off them… out of the few hundred ive done over the years ive only had about 10 leak again, but they usually had double the miles from the first time, i mean hell i see new cars with the same problem, anywhere after 20k. thats what you get with a low tq plastic and rubber gasket inbetween aluminum and steel…lol…