How hard is it to chang a timing cover gasket and an intake manifold gasket? They both have a leak. I am 16 years old and i wanted to save myself some money by doing it myself. Is this a good idea?

 

Are you sure the timing cover is leaking? You may find the intake is leaking over the timing cover. Intake is a simple fix but timing cover takes considerable more time.

 

well i'm not for sure. i got my motor rebuilt about a year ago and when i got it back it had a leak in the rear main seal, the timing cover, and the exhaust manifold. Therefore i took it back to the mechanic and he said he "fixed" it but it still leaked. i took it back to him 2 more times and he never fixed it so i took it some where else and they said that the timing cover and the exhaust mainfold were leaking. The estimate was about $400. therefore i was wondering would these be hard things to fix and i long would they take a novice like myself to finish? like a weekend or a week or ???

 

Is it your exhaust or intake leaking? My intake is leaking along the front edge.. All over the front of the engine. I don't look at this as a "bad thing" because it keeps a slow, fresh flow of new oil coming in to replace the "vented" old oil.. I'm 25 and dont quite want to do it myself, but you are giving me inspiration to get off my keister. Cleaning oil off the engine is starting to suck.. Can we get a few good tips on what we should do/have ready/replace when we take on fixing the gasket/seal? Good time to block off EGR eh? (Sorry to burst in on your post jamie)

 

yes it is my intake manifold gasket that is leaking. does anyone have any good advice? what EGR??

 

I removed the timing cover about three times this past week so I'm pretty well versed in the procedure. Last time I did it, an hour ago, it took me an hour to get the cover off. Here's a quick run down of what's required.

-Drain the oil and coolant.
-While they are draining remove the intake setup and fans (i had to remove them to get the e-water pump out, you probably won't need to in order to get the stock one out)
-Compress the hose clamps at the water pump (i use a pair of small vice grips) and push them down the hose.
-Once the coolant is drained pull the hoses off. Be prepared to catch extra coolant when you pull the bottom passenger side hose off, for me it always has plenty of coolant left in it.
-Some suggest draining the block also but i never do and don't get the opti wet when i pull the water pump off.
-Remove the 6 water pump bolts. You will have to remove some of the smog pump stuff on the drivers side and possibly remove the bolts for the powersteering pump to push it out of the way in order to get the center bolt for the water pump. I do just because it makes removing that bolt easier and only takes a minute.
-As a precaution cover the optispark with a plastic bag when you remove the water pump as coolant will come out when you remove the bolts.
-Now that you have the water pump off remove the balancer. It's supposed to come off once the three bolts are removed but often times they are stuck so you will need a three jaw puller to remove it.
-Once the balancer is off remove the hub. An impact gun makes quick work of removing the hub bolt. Otherwise figure a way to stop the engine from turning over and remove the bolt.
- Using a harmonic balancer puller pull the hub off. Put a long bolt in the crank snout that just fits but won't catch any of the threads, you will push off this with the balancer puller. Get some bolts washers and nuts to go through the puller and hub, use washers and nuts on the back of the hub and snug the puller up. Tighten the screw on the puller. This should start pulling the hub off but often the hub is stuck on there good. If this is the case use a torch to heat the hub being careful not to catch anything on fire or hurt your optispark. Usually heat will do the trick.
- Undo the optispark connections. Be sure to label the plug wires to save yourself some time later. Also look over all the connections taking note of anything that's corroded. My optispark connector was in pretty bad shape when I removed mine.
- Remove the three bolts that hold the optispark in and pull it off.
- Remove all the oil pan bolts and lower the pan a little.
- Remove the bolts around the timing cover and pull the timing cover off being careful not to rip the oil pan gasket.

Depending on how many miles your engine has it'd be a good idea to put a new timing chain in while your in there. I think the stock LT1 chain runs under $100.

Installation is pretty much reverse of removale with the exception of the hub. It can be hard to install. I use a threaded rod into the crank, a big washer and a nut to pull it on. Be sure you install the optispark correctly also, it can be tricky. You want to get the dowl pin into the odd shaped hole.

After writing all this I think shoebox covers this all on one of his pages. I spent the time to write it so i might as well post it though.

Edit: One more thing, since you have the timing cover off it's a good idea to replace all the seals in it. I also didn't mention anything about the Crank position sensor or reluctor ring (i think that's what it's called) that OBDII cars have. I didn't realize you had a 97 until now. I've never worked on an obdII lt1 so maybe someone else on here can chime in or you can check shoebox's page, he probably covers it.

 

i really appriate the help! thanks

 

Go here if ya need to see
http://shbox.com/page/index.html

 

Yeah, i was right he does cover it. Reference this when doing it, http://shbox.com/ci/cam_removal.html it's more detailed and has pictures.