I took my old opti off and found that there is oil in it. I also see a small puncture hole in the censor. I don't think that hole is supposed to be there is it? I Also need to know what to replace so that oil doesn't get into my new opti. I read that you can replace the seals on the front of the timing cover without having to pull it off. Is that what i should do to stop the problem OR will it stop the problem? I had a oil leak at the bottom of the timing chain cover which i fixed with the permatex stuff and is holding up. Thanks in advance, Justin .

 

while ur already there, why dont u just pull off the timing chain cover all together and have it done properly

 

get a new opti thats for sure. gm performance is a good one. i had one go 100k without issues. was there oil on the outside of the opti? it could have leaked down into the wire harness plugin and found its way in there. did it look like that was it? u can also get oil from the front intake manifold seal that leaks down to that same area.
u can change the water pump driveshaft seal and the main seal without takiing the front cover off. i would recomend u do both but i will say its not easy to get the pump seal on there without a install tool. i picked up a set that has a few different tools to do it but u can make one for the pump seal from a marker cap by trimming it down so it fits over the end of the shaft and lets the seal slid on without hanging up on the driveshaft.

 

you can replace the seals on the timing cover but just take it off like said and redue the cover seal so it doesnt leak anymore since your their.

 

I got a new Opti from thepartsladi. The oil was under the white cover and leaked down into the rest of it or the other way around. There was dried up black gunk on the outside of it But not alot, It was pretty clean. I don't know where the oil is coming in. I did notice that when i pulled the harness everything was dry but it had been sitting for a week before moving it yesterday to work on it. I'm having a friend do the work with limited time and we also noticed that the oil pan has to be dropped. Is there a easy/ quick way to take the cover off? Thanks for the help, Justin

 

If the seal from the cover to the oil pan/block is not leaking, you don't need to remove it. All the round seals can be replaced with the cover on. The front of the pan needs to be dropped, there is no way around that (if you want to do it right).

 

The bottom of the cover was leaking and i put permatex (RTV) on it and it stopped the leak.

 

Well we replaced the w. pump drive shaft seal and the main seal. Took all of 5mins. Installed new Opti and put it all back together. Fired right up and seems to be running alright. I took it out for a few test drives and the first ride i took, the fuel gauge was going nuts. It was 3/4's full and it would go back and forth like way past F and then back down to where it was supposed to be. It did it just that one ride. I've since taken it for about 4 more short rides maybe 15-20mins long and it hasn't done it again. Hopefully this is the end of my problems for a while and now i can move on to mods. I'm really wanting a SLP LM exhaust for it but will have to wait. It really seems to have more power than when i got it. For only having 2.73 gears, It will kick a little and squeal a little punching it from about 30mph or so. The plugs actually didn't look to bad and the wires looked newer but they were Packard's???. Also threw on a new Gatorback belt cause the old one was cracked. Anyways, Thanks for the reply's, Justin