Uplander coil pack removal

[toni1595]

Hi All,
I'm in the process of replacing the valve cover gaskets on a 2007 Chevy Uplander. I found that the coil pack on the rear side of this motor needs to be removed in order to get this valve cover off. I have 3 of the bolts out, but the one on the upper side left hand corner is kind of underneath the intake manifold and for the life of me, I can't seem to get a socket on this bolt. My thinking is now is to remove the upper intake manifold so that I can gain access to this bolt, but that opens up another can of worms and makes this project even more of a job than it already is.

If you have ever done this, you know what kind of a pain this is to do. The front side was a cakewalk compared to this back side. And yes, I do have the front motor mounts off and rolled the engine forward, removed the alternator, etc..

Has anyone on here ever tried to do a rear valve cover gasket on one of these vans? Is it possible to get this upper bolt out without taking the intake manifold off?

Thanks in advance for any assistance that you guys in the wrenching world can suggest or recommend.

[toni1595]

OK, well I thought that I would update this, as it turns out, you don't necessarily need to remove the upper intake. On this plate that the coil is mounted on, there are 4 more bolts that are set out further and ARE accessible, I did not see this at first and as you may know, this is not a very user friendly location. One part that definitely needs to be removed is the crossover pipe along the top front of the engine, you won't be able to get the rear valve cover off without removing this for sure.

So anyways, after I got the upper intake off I figured that I might as well go for the lower one too, as all that's left is the fuel rail to remove and 8 more bolts and this may save me some grief down the road. Although I don't know if GM still has the lower intake issues that they once had...

One thing that I've observed from this tear down, I don't know if it's from age or the use of the Dexcool, but some of these rubber parts are in very bad shape. The rubber is all but gone, like it's been attacked. I've been considering changing this out to the green coolant, the same as I did on my Chevy Venture back in the day, but I am hesitant to do this.

So now I'm off to the parts store or maybe Rock Auto...

Have a good day.