Just pulled the intake manifolds off my car tonight. First time pulling my motor apart like that. What a learning experience!
Anyway the question is: the pushrods are routed THROUGH the lower intake manifold gaskets. How the hell do I change the gaskets? Do I have to pull the pushrods first?
And since we're here, is there anything I should be looking for or could do while I have her opened up like this?
Thanks alot

 

if its like any of the 3.4 intakes ive done in luminas and such you need to remove the valve covers and loosen the rockers. and remove pushrods.

Keep them in perfect order as some are long and some are short. you will bend a valve if you put one back in the wrong sopt.

There is no adjustment to the rockers just righten them back down to the torq spec. I never torq em just tighten them really good.

Thats about it yes the pushrods go through the intake gasket.

I didnt know these motors came in f bodys i never see alot of them is seems.

 

yeah but the 3.4L engine that is in the lumina is a totaly different engine than what in the f-body up top atlteast. All the push rods are the same lenght but it is a good idea to keep them inorder just to be on the safe side. But like he said you will have to undo the rocker arm pull it off and the push rod will slide out of the engine then you can remove the old gasket clean the surface and install the new one. Just one you go back to reinstall the rocker arms you have to adjust the valve lash. Just like any typical small block chevy. Bring the particular cylinder you are working on to top dead center on the compression stroke. Continue tightening the rocker arm nut until there is no play between the lifter, pushrod and rocker arm then tighten another 3/4 of a turn then repeat for each other valve.

 

How do I bring a cylinder to top dead center on the compression stroke?

 

put the tranny in neutral find and socekt that can fit on the crankshaft pully bolt and turn it with a ratchet. Or you could use to the starter to bump the engine enought until that particular cylinder is on the compression stroke. I just don't like to use the starter I prefer to use the socekt and ratchet you have way more controle cus if you accidentaly go past the compression stoke then you have to completely bump the engine all the way over until you get back to where it needs to be.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I went ahead and called the dealer service dept yesterday and hit him up with a few questions. But I finished her up yesterday at about 9:30 pm and took her out for a spin this morning. Running great, but there's a bit of smoke coming from around the motor. No leaks that I can see though.

 

its probably just oil that driped off the valve covers onto the exhaust manifol. REally nothing you can do about that its unavoidable. Just drive it for a few days and if it doesn't go away I would go back and look over everything to make sure there isn't a leak.

 

Drove her for about half an hour and it all cleared up. Can't wait to do a full rebuild next time.
Thanks for all the inputs!

 

Ok, sorry I'm digging up this post, but I've been out of town for the past couple of weeks, and don't want to start a new thread.
After putting the motor back together, I drove my car down to Atlanta (6hrs) and caught a plane to Virginia for 2 weeks. When I got back home, I started her up. Car ran fine, but white smoke pours from the tailpipe until she's nice and warm. This happens every time.
Any Ideas on that?

Also, when I adjusted the valve lash, I tightened the springs just within specs. Now it just feels like there's no pep when I step on the pedal. Should I have taken the valve lash more to the tighter end of the specs? Any other reason that I would notice a power reduction after replacing the gaskets? Pushrods had to come out to replace gaskets, so that's as far into the motor as I had to get.
Thanks alot.

 

is it a white smoke or like a white/blue smoke? what does it smell like? Does it smell like burning rubber or more of a sweet smell? Have to determine what is getting into the combustion chambers then try and figure out how to fix it. And I"m not too sure what you mean by you tightened the springs to just within specs. Are you talking about the valve spring or the rocker arm. And are you sure you installed the rocker arm nut properly with the flat side down? I'm not too sure what will happen if you adjust the valve with the nut upside down but I know it will cause some kind of problem.

 

Well, doesn't smell like rubber, and it's not really sweet. I'd say it smells sour, best I can describe it. I'll huff some more of it later on today.
As for the nut, I never removed it, just loosened it enough to pull the pushrods. So when I reinstalled the pushrods, I tightened the nut until there was no play in the pushrods, then another 3/4 turns. If I remember right, the book said 3/4 to 1 1/2 turns so I'm wondering if I should have taken it closer to the 1 1/2.

 

its probably oil. When you were tightening the rocker arm nut with the socket did you physicaly take the socket off the nut and away from the rocker arm when you were checking for play between the pushrod and rocker arm. The space between the nut and the rocker arm is very small and the socket is big enought to make it feel like everything is nice and tight with no play but still could have a lil bit of play in it. And are you 100% sure that the particular cylindar you were adjusting the valves on was at TDC before you started adjusting the valves?

 

Man, you're bumming me out. LOL
No, I didn't take the socket off the nut so no, I'm not sure that there was no play.
And no, I'm not absolutely sure that the cylinders were at TDC, but I'm PRETTY sure. LOL
It's running fine though, the engine won't blow up on me will it?
Wish I'd had time to learn all I needed for that project before I started... LOL

 

no it won't blow up your engine just cause your plugs to foul out and probably destroy your cat in the process. I'll try and reexplain this step by step from scratchjust to make sure you are crystal clear on how to do this.

First bring the particular cylinday to TDC and one vavle at a time you are going to adjust the valve lash. Tighten the rocker arm nut until there is no play between the push rod and rocker arm every time you check it take the socket off the nut to check the clearance between the push rod and rocker arm once there is extreamly lil play between the pushrod and rocker arm, I'm talking like less than 1/8" start twisting the push rod between your fingers and slowly continue tightening the nut until can't twist it at all. I'm not talking using all your might to try and twist the push rod just light pressure between your thumb and forefinger. Again once tighten 3/4 of a turn and you should be done with that valve. If at any time you feel you have tighten the nut down too much back it off and start over again.

Sorry if I'v been a lil confusing its been a while since I'v adjusted valves on an engine before and didn't quite remember exactly how to do it step by step until I though about it hope that helps you and like usual if you got any questions just ask.

 

Cool, I think I did it right then. LOL