Guys/Gals,

If you remember I recently replaced the Oil Pan gasket with the motor in the car and a 7 QT canton pan. Pretty difficult, but all done and my real leak is gone. However, I still have the front leak and it's coming from higher up and I think it is either the Opti Seal, Crank Seal or Water Pump seal, just not sure which one so I am gonna do the set this weekend. Any reccs, procedures I should follow as this is my list:

1) Pull Crank Pulley and Hub/Balancer (What procedure should I follow to pull the balancer/hub and also reinstalling it?)
2) Pull radiator fan schroud
3) Pull water pump (disconnect hoses or not?)
4) Pull Opti
5) Pull Timing cover
6) Replace seals (Crank, Opti and Opti Orings, Water Pump on block and timing cover and drive o rings, and lastly Timing cover gasket)
7) Reinstall everything

Any advise/pics is greatly appreciated, and in your opinion is this easily done in a few hours?

 

Hey Dave, its all pretty straight forward as you begin to remove things.
I did not remove my radiator or fans when I did mine and had plenty of room.
For the 3 eared hub..I used just a 3 eared puller available at most any auto store for about $25. It came with a variety of bolts, I used the 3 bolts with a diameter just a bit smaller than the balancer bolts so they went thru all 3 bolts holes in the hub and then put a nut on the backside of each.
You'll need a bigazz cheater bar then on the puller, and another wrench on the flywheel bolts to hold the crank in place while you very slowly crank down on the puller bolt....it is a very slow process, crank only about a 1/4 turn each time....if you go too fast you'll just strip out the threads on the puller...I'm on my 3rd puller now after doing this twice....but it does eventually come off.
If you have a butane tourch, heat the hub as it will cause it too expand and come off easier...I did not have a tourch...
Putting it back on is easier....put the hud without the balancer in the oven in your kitchen, set the temp to about 300-350 degrees....leave it in for about 30 minutes, remove it and use several bolts of varying lengths and some washers to press fit it back on...if you go fairly quick before the hub cools down, it will slip on fairly easily....but you'll need to go to the hardware store and get some varying length bolts that will thread into the front crank...I think I started with a 3" bolt, then when it bottoms out, go to a 2.5" and then a 2" from what I remember....make sure you have plenty of it thread into the crank before it starts pressing the hub on...you darn sure do not want to strip the threads there.

Putting the waterpump shaft seal on can be a trick too...I used a piece of vacuum hose that just fit over the teeth and spread the gasket out far enough to make it on to the shaft without damaging the seal.....Others have used a "Cone" cap..like that on silicon sealant tubes to spread the seal out to get it over the shaft...but I didn't have the right size cone on any of my tubes...so the vacuum hose worked fine for me....you'll see what I mean when you go to install it...it cannot be just pressed over the shaft "edges" like you might think...I ruined 2 before I finally figured out what to do the first time I did it...of course you have to buy an entire gasket set to get that little seal.

 

Hey Rob, thanks and you seem to be everywhere these days - LOL. Do you suggest that I go ahead and replace the actual timing cover gasket while I am down there or just leave it in place and stick with the seals? Also, should the kit come with the Opti and Water Pump o-rings (Mr. Gasket set) - 4 total I believe?

 

The timing cover fel-pro kit will have the wp, timing cover, wp shaft seal, opti drive seal, and crank seal all in it.

If it were me, I'd clean everything off real good in the front with carb cleaner or use straight simple green or degreaser at car wash first and determine exactly where its leaking.
You can do the wp seal without removing the opti... you can do the opti seal without removing the timing cover..which saves you from removing the crank hub...
Hate to do it all and then find its the front of the intake gasket...

Get it good and clean....then drive till it leaks...inspect the intake gasket/front first...then the crank hub...if there's no oil on intake surface and there's oil above the hub..then its either the wp shaft or opti....when you pull the wp, you'll be able to see if the seal there was leaking...if it wasn't and its all dry in that area, then proceed to the opti.....when you get the opti off...again you'll see if oil was pouring down the front cover from the opti seal...if so, just replace the opti seal without removing the cover.

If its the crank hub..then it all has to come apart...

 

Thanks Rob, the kit only has 2 o'rings in it and after doing some searching I found that a lot of people say the 93-95 opti's didn't have the o'rings or the grooves for them on the shaft. Do you know if this is true?

 

The '95 opti is different than the '94 and '93. I beleive the opti shaft seal is a different size.
http://shbox.com/ci/opti_mounting.jpg
http://shbox.com/1/engine_front_diagram.jpg
From the diagrams above you'll see you should have 3 o-ring seals...well not exactly o-rings, but seals similar to the crank shaft seal. wp shaft, opti shaft, and crank shaft.

 

Hey Rob, I'm a little confused as I am talking about actual o'rings on the opti drive shaft and water pump drive shaft, not the seals that mount in the timing cover. Here is a quote from ShoeBOX on another post:

Yes, there should be o-rings on the opti drive shaft. There is also one ring on each of the water pump shafts (pump side and engine side) where the coupler slips on.

And here is the link:
http://www.ls3forums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5964

Can you clear this up as I think I need two more o-rings to go on the Opti drive shaft?

 

Ok guys, this is what I am talking about:

http://www.impalaclub.com/naisso/for...TOPIC_ID=30984

I know it's an impala but same LT1 and can anyone let me know if the '95 TA will have the same O'rings on the Opti drive shaft and a part #/place where I can get them? Just wanna make sure before I start tearing her down and don't have everything I need to put it all back together.

 

FYI - Found this at RockAuto.com and only place that seems to carry em is the dealer - $2 a piece (OUCH!!!!!).

1995 PONTIAC FIREBIRD TRANS AM 5.7L 350cid V8 MFI (P) : Ignition : Distributor Components

Item Price Core Total
ACDELCO Part # 10474278
SEAL,DISTR HSG OIL(O RING)
** Sold in packs of 10; Price reflects cost of each individual item, not the pack **

$1.42 $0.00 $1.42

 

The opti shaft o-rings (10474278) are $1.11 wholesale at the dealer. As long as you have the vented opti, it will have the o-rings. Everything you quoted me as saying in post #7 is accurate.

 

Thanks Rob (AKA ShoeBox).

 

Oh sorry, I was thinking you meant the seals and was calling them an o-ring. As shoebox indicated, yes, there's one on the opti, and 2 on the wp shaft. You can just reuse your old ones if they aren't torn, or go buy some regular o-rings in the "HELP" section at your local auto store...all they do is keep the shafts from vibrating and making noise, they do not seal anything up so as long as they are taller than the edges around them so that the shafts fit "snuggly" together there should not be a problem.

 

You got it, I'll let you know how she goes this weekend.