INTAKE GASKET MAIN PAGE, PLEASE POST Q'S&A'S HERE!

[iceman2]

Originally Posted by cdru

Wow. You really took the hard way to get that off of there............

The order is 5-2-3-6-4-1. On my modules the number is printed on the top of the module.

I thought that was the case, thank you, I'll remember tomorrow when I start putting everything back together. Received serious rope burns pulling the engine forward, BTW, do you know the GM part Number for the original spark plugs? The ones in there now are 41-940, they look a little warn, but not bad, I can't tell if they're original, the van has 130k miles. Also, #1 cylinder was full of green antifreeze, the other cylinders weren't. I'm anxious to get this back together, your recommendation about removal of the rear head with the exhaust manifold still attached was a life saver. I keep reading about replacing the oil something o-ring? And, Bob said there pictures of the complete breakdown somewhere on line?

thanks,

Mark

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by iceman2

BTW, do you know the GM part Number for the original spark plugs? The ones in there now are 41-940, they look a little warn, but not bad, I can't tell if they're original, the van has 130k miles.
Mark

What year is the Venture? I did a quick look and the '99 model uses the 41-940 (GM#25163148) and the '03 model uses 41-101, and the '01 model shows a part # of 41-979 (GM #25333938 ). They probably are original equipment in there now as many people I have spoken to over the years have mentioned they thought that the 100,000 mile plugs are just that, you keep them in for 100,000 miles. I usually tell them that it is a good idea to check them anywheres from 60,000 to 75,000 miles because they can wear out before 100,000 miles. At least with the GM minivans owners have this opportunity to do just that (check them before 100,000 miles) as the intakes usually fail before then, and when the engine is torn down to replace the gaskets, it's an excellent time to replace the plugs.

[cdru]

Originally Posted by iceman2

Received serious rope burns pulling the engine forward

Again you are making things harder then they need to be. The method I always use to rock the engine forward is to run a ratchet tie down strap through the loop on the engine mount on the right of the engine and loop it around the hood latch bracket. It will ratchet down fairly easily enough to get to the back. Most of the pressure you will feel actually will be the exhaust pipe flex section.

BTW, do you know the GM part Number for the original spark plugs? The ones in there now are 41-940, they look a little warn, but not bad, I can't tell if they're original, the van has 130k miles.

I don't know what the originals are, but just pick up 6 new ones. You will NEVER have a time where access is easier. It may cost $25 now when it may not be NEEDED, but do you want to spend an afternoon down the road doing having to replace them?

Also, #1 cylinder was full of green antifreeze, the other cylinders weren't.

I presume this is after you have removed the head. If that is the case, you can't go by the presence of antifreeze after the head has been removed. There will still be some antifreeze stuck in the places and removing the heads will cause some to leak into the cylinder. Just clean it up as soon as possible to prevent it from further leaking down into the oil pan as much as possible.

I keep reading about replacing the oil something o-ring? And, Bob said there pictures of the complete breakdown somewhere on line?

I don't know about a complete break down, but this post I made a few years ago has some pictures when my engine was torn down. This picture shows the engine without the heads. If you look on the right just above the middle, there is a silver "cap" that sticks out about 1/2 inch. This is the oil pump drive shaft (under the cap). Back when the vehicles had a distributor still, this shaft would have continued up to the distributer rotor.

Anyways, you'll need to remove the bolt that is holding the bracket down and lift the shaft straight up. A pair of vice grips or channel lock pliers make the job easier. You can ding up the top of the cap without problems, but don't put anything between the block and the bottom of the cap. You want these surfaces to be smooth. Once you get it out, there will be an o-ring a little ways down on the shaft. Mine basically fell apart when poked at with a screwdriver.

Reinstallation is reverse of the process. The drive shaft sometimes will want to slip out of the cap. A little bit of axle grease in the top of the cap provides enough stickyness to keep the shaft in place for reinsertion.

[rhandwor]

If you think you had a leaking head gasket have the heads pressure tested at a machine shop while they are off. This will save you a lot of work if one is cracked.

[iceman2]

Originally Posted by rhandwor

If you think you had a leaking head gasket have the heads pressure tested at a machine shop while they are off. This will save you a lot of work if one is cracked.

Already did that, they pressure checked and planed the bottoms, was a little disappointed with the cost, $185 total, but they did not recommend new valves. I have reinstalled the rear head and will try to finish this project tomorrow at the garage.

[iceman2]

Just finished, got everything back together, started right up, these forums are fantastic! Did not replace push rods exactly, but had the right lengths in the right order, do not notice any rattling. Electrical plugs will only go in one way, however, vacuum tubes, that's another story. Recommend bagging and tagging all bolts, and labeling all vacuum and electrical connections. Pre-mark both ends of new spark plug wires, the ones I bought did not have numbers on them. Install EGR to upper intake, loosely, before installing upper intake. Take lots of high quality phots, could not find a single photo of my actual engine anywhere except EBAY and autozone.com, had to improvise with other year models. Where the heater pipe, EGR, fuel lines, Tansmission dip stick meet can be a bear, make sure you have a good photo, if you can disconnect both the fuel lines and by-pass pipe, I highly recommend doing so, or at least one of them. Lastly, I want to echo the previous poster's comment about how gratifying it was when the van started up.

[webtyrant69]

Hi,
I too have gasket troubles and am attempting to fix it myself. I was trying to rotate the engine, but it didn't leave me much room to remove the ignition coil. As a novice wannabe mechanic who is using the haynes manual as a guide, I wanted to know how far is the engine supposed to rotate? Enough to easily remove the coil??

[iceman2]

Originally Posted by webtyrant69

Hi,
I too have gasket troubles and am attempting to fix it myself. I was trying to rotate the engine, but it didn't leave me much room to remove the ignition coil. As a novice wannabe mechanic who is using the haynes manual as a guide, I wanted to know how far is the engine supposed to rotate? Enough to easily remove the coil??

'Easily' being the operative word, nothing is easy on this vehicle, you should be able to rotate engine forward just enough to reach the two back nuts holding the coil plate to the studs, mine are 13 mm, remove the two front bolts (10mm) that are connected to the upper intake manifold and the coil plate should lift up and out. Check your plug wires at this time and replace if there's any chance they're not perfect, also I replaced the plugs, I used OEM AC Delco Platinum, believe this is necessary because there are other posts with problems from off-brand plugs.

[tepco]

Originally Posted by webtyrant69

Hi,
I too have gasket troubles and am attempting to fix it myself. I was trying to rotate the engine, but it didn't leave me much room to remove the ignition coil. As a novice wannabe mechanic who is using the haynes manual as a guide, I wanted to know how far is the engine supposed to rotate? Enough to easily remove the coil??

It will rotate enough forward to reach the rear nuts to the alternator, not see them. I laid down underneith the van and remowed them from there. It was easier for me because i had the van on stands.

Good luck, just take your time and dont take short cuts and youll do fine.

BTW im a motorcycle mechanic and an auto body man and it took me all day, so guage your time on that.

[webtyrant69]

Originally Posted by iceman2

'Easily' being the operative word, nothing is easy on this vehicle, you should be able to rotate engine forward just enough to reach the two back nuts holding the coil plate to the studs, mine are 13 mm, remove the two front bolts (10mm) that are connected to the upper intake manifold and the coil plate should lift up and out. Check your plug wires at this time and replace if there's any chance they're not perfect, also I replaced the plugs, I used OEM AC Delco Platinum, believe this is necessary because there are other posts with problems from off-brand plugs.

I was able to rotate it enough to get off all but the right nut. It seems too crowded to see it let alone get to it. Any advice on how to remove it. Mayb from a different angle, removing something else?? I think the manual made some steps look a little too easy.

[iceman2]

Originally Posted by webtyrant69

I was able to rotate it enough to get off all but the right nut. It seems too crowded to see it let alone get to it. Any advice on how to remove it. Mayb from a different angle, removing something else?? I think the manual made some steps look a little too easy.

I ended up removing the 7mm bolts holding the three coils to the plate, and unplugged the coils, but was chastised in an earlier post for doing this, it wasn't all that much extra work. BTW, this is one of the areas you'll want to take some good quality digi photos. There are three plugs on the coil plate, two on right one on left, and a wire harness holder on the front, again, mine's a 1997.

[webtyrant69]

Originally Posted by iceman2

I ended up removing the 7mm bolts holding the three coils to the plate, and unplugged the coils, but was chastised in an earlier post for doing this, it wasn't all that much extra work. BTW, this is one of the areas you'll want to take some good quality digi photos. There are three plugs on the coil plate, two on right one on left, and a wire harness holder on the front, again, mine's a 1997.

I'll try it if it makes removing the plate easier, thanks. Mine is a 2002, and I was advised to take many pics of everything i touch. I appreciate the feedback, I'm sure I'll have a few more questions to get me through.

[Sparky1349]

Originally Posted by webtyrant69

I'll try it if it makes removing the plate easier, thanks. Mine is a 2002, and I was advised to take many pics of everything i touch. I appreciate the feedback, I'm sure I'll have a few more questions to get me through.

Hey webtyrant69, I just finished my 2002 on Saturday. After removing and installing the coil pack at least 6 times I got pretty good at it. If you haven't gotten rid of the windshield wiper linkage do that first. Disconnect the drivers side arm at the wiper end & the center crank to remove it completely. Undo the link from the center crank to the wiper motor at the wiper motor. Then move the passenger wiper until you have as much room as possible to get your arm back around behind the coil pack.

You will also want to get rid of the MAP sensor and bracket (black square box right in front of the coil pack with a couple of vacuum lines attached) take the sensor off the bracket and then pull the bolt off of the unpper intake to get the bracket off, be careful with the vacuum line from the MAP sensor to the fuel pressure regulator, I snapped mine off the second or third time I pulled the MAP sensor. Pull the vacuum line from the intake to the power brake booster. You can flip the hose over under the cowl or just pull the fitting out of the brake booster and pull the hose completely out, careful the hose fittings on the intake and the brake booster are plastic!

Get the wire harness out of the way as best as you can, if you want everything is going to get unplugged anyway so remove all of the connections and flip the whole harness over the radiator, note where all the connectors go. There are 2 connections you have to keep track of, the O2 sensor is on the back exhaust manifold (who's F---en idea was that!) and the crank sensor wire is on the back side of the engine. The 3 pin connector that goes to the back drivers side connector on the coil pack (This is the crank trigger wire) doesn't attached to the main wire loom so you might want to tie a piece of string to it. I wasn't watching for it and it got trapped under the throttle body, I didn't notice until I went to make all of the connections on the coil and wound up having to strip everything off to lift the upper intake so I could get the damn connector out. Trust me, the engine will not run without that connection. Some of the connectors like the O2 sensor have a locking pin that goes through the release mechanism, they can be a pain in the ass to get out, just do the best you can with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Get a ratchet with a 13mm deep socket and a 3-4 inch extension, use your hand to guide the socket over the nut on the stud, just run your finger along the aluminum mounting plate from the passengers side to the drivers side, you will feel the nut. Then just guide the socket over the nut, you should just have to back it off 1 turn then spin it off with you finger, there is a tip on the stud so you will have to grab the nut to take it off, use a magnet if you have to, don't drop it because it probably won't make it to the ground.

Good Luck,

Steven

[webtyrant69]

hey sparky,

thanks so much for all the info, it is helping me immensely. quick question: did you remove the passenger strut mount to take the valve cover off?? it is a real pain in the a@# to get it off with the strut mount on. do you know how to remove it? i removed 1 bolt on top and the haynes manual says theres 1 on the bottom but i dont see it. any advice??

[Sparky1349]

Originally Posted by webtyrant69

hey sparky,

thanks so much for all the info, it is helping me immensely. quick question: did you remove the passenger strut mount to take the valve cover off?? it is a real pain in the a@# to get it off with the strut mount on. do you know how to remove it? i removed 1 bolt on top and the haynes manual says theres 1 on the bottom but i dont see it. any advice??

I spent a couple of hours trying to get that damn bracket off of the engine, pulled off the bolts that hold the A/C Compressor and the bolt into the cylinder head and I couldn't get it off, so I gave up and pulled the 4 screws out of the valve cover and found you can sneak it by without pulling the mount off.

Be careful putting the valve cover back on, the screws are really easy to cross thread if you try and drive them in without turning them carefully in by hand at least 2-3 threads.. I cross threaded the screw under the passenger strut mount and thought I was screwed (no pun intended). Luckly I only buggered up 1 or 2 threads before I stopped and backed off. Had to get a 6mm X 1mm tap and clean up the threads.

If you want to save a little time the 4 push rods in the corners don't have to come off, they go underneath the gaskets. Most of the rest go over or through the gasket and need to come out.

Sparky