98 3.1L top end rebuild (pics)

I'm gonna keep a log of what I'm doing, best place to put it is here at AF....


I've put this job off forever, lumina is my 2nd car, LIM failure + bad ticking. Haven't street driven it in 2 years, just cranked regulary and a little driving in front of the house.

Debated just doing the LIM quickly or go further and tear off the heads. Yesterday I pulled the manifolds, then today I got the front head off. This is the 2nd LIM - first one was the felpro plastic - silicone seals failed in the middle of the gasket.

Exhaust manifold stud at #1 cylinder sheared off, wasn't using that much force, had PB'd everything beforehand. Did not surprise me having a bolt shear off.

Of the 2 bolts on the exhaust collector behind the engine, one would not budge. At all. At least it didn't shear off. Decided to cut the exhaust pipe and pull the rear head out with manifold and collector attached - I already have a new cat/pipe anyway - current cat is clogged.

The oem exhaust is pretty dam tough, dremel with a diamond cutoff wheel wasn't doing anything, angle grinder is too many sparks... picked up an air powered metal saw on sale today, my next task is cutting the exhaust off and getting the head off.

Going ziploc bag crazy, everything small goes into a labeled ziplok, keeps bolts together with the part, dumb-proof not mixing up rockers and lifters. Less sorting thru parts when I got to reassemble.

Not in a hurry, hope to not take over a month, little bit at a time. And like hell if I'm using Dexcool again. And totally missed out on the dexcool settlement didn't know about it being settled until 2 months after the deadline.

Plans:

sandblast parts, clean, primer, paint everything (silver)
send injectors off to Mr Injector for rebuilding and flow testing
lap valves, new valve stem seals
new cat
add twin turbos and 100hp nitrous kit (im kidding!)


Anyone need pics of specific parts/locations while the engine is torn down let me know. Pic with the arrow shows where that oil pump o-ring hides... often recommended here to replace o-ring when doing LIM gasket. Ahhhh so that's where it's at....
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UPDATE: here in this post is a summary of 'lessons learned'

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take pictures all along the way. save lots of time and have a machine shop clean everything (except rocker/lifter/pushrods as you want to make sure they arent mixed up)

replacing cat? needed to jack car up where at least 1 wheel is off ground, that will give enough clearance to remove cat - it gets stuck on power steering lines. you'll need to remove the heat shield below for clearance. replacement magnaflow won't be threaded on rear flange - use four 35mm-40mm M10 bolts/nuts.

support engine on jack with wood block, under oil pan - you'll be removing top motor mounts and will need support.

removing heads. remove the block drain plugs on each side of engine - this will prevent coolant from leaking into the piston cylinders when you remove the heads. front is near oil filter, rear is near 7x sensor. if you have small arms you can reach around near the belts and reach drain plug with ratchet/14mm socket.

pre-install on heads - clean pistons, i used brake cleaner to clean the tops and cylinders, then sprayed some in each cylinder, cranked to get the pistons moving and hopefully get some crud out of the rings. lubricate piston/cylinders.

installing heads - install rear exhaust manifold on head before installing head - easier to torque correctly. check compression immediately on install. leave all spark plugs out at this time. install spark plugs after compression test, easier to reach. use new headbolts.

exhaust manifolds - remove heatshields, then soak exhaust studs/nuts and flange studs/nuts with PB blaster OVERNIGHT.

rockers/lifters/pushrods - label order and put in ziplock bag. disassemble lifters for cleaning. pre-prime lifters with oil before reinstall. make sure pushrod holes are clear. i torqued each rocker bolt with the rocker in the 'relaxed' position.

upper intake - remove plastic vacuum hose and send to shop for cleaning

lower intake - remove fuel rails, injectors, coolant temp sensor - send to show for cleaning

injectors - send off for rebuild (Mr Injector)

heads - rebuilt at machine shop, cleaned, recommend retapping diagonal intake holes (M8x1.25 helicoil 5546-8) and rocker threads (M10x1.5 helicoil 5546-10). I didn't re-thread the vertical intake threads but that is an option too. if you get new intake bolts - reuse shorter diagonal bolts if replacement bolt is shorter (fel-pro kit ES72225 - diagonal bolts too short)

oil pump drive - felpro 70800 o-ring and felpro 70194 dist mounting gasket for extra protection

oil pump primer - use 8mm socket on extension. tape socket to extension so it wont fall off. careful not to pull oil pump shaft out of oil pump. you will not get pressure to the lifter galleries.

cleaning crankcase - added 1 gallon diesel fuel to crankcase, let soak overnight. primed. drain. add 1 gallon diesel fuel and prime. drain. add oil. change this oil again after you get it running.

keep thermostat out for proper flushing. you'll need to remove throttle body to get to it.

if oil in coolant, remove clip and coolant level sensor in rad (side of rad, below filler neck). NEED small hands. clean crud off sensor to prevent false "low coolant level" light.

Very nice job! I have done countless GM 3100/3400 LIM gaskets. Every job seems to go the same, but have its own little annoyance. When going back together, you can install a GM small block 350 distributer seal under that oil drive gear along with a new o ring for added leak assurance. Also make sure the pushrods go back in the correct order exaclty since the intakes and exhausts are different lenghts. Then when it is all back together, turn the motor over by hand a few times before you hit the starter to feel for and valve/piston contact. Just in case a pushrod got mixed up you dont bend a valve by cranking the starter (been there done that).

i put each rocker, push rod, and lifter in separate ziplok bags, labeled by cylinder 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b (lazy to match up intake/exhaust)

ill clean them all separately so they wont get mixed up.

waiting on word about the heads, dropped in for hot tanking and redoing the valves w/new stem seals



word to the wise... since you cannot presoak the exhaust manifold studs with PB due to the heat shields in the way, remove the heat shields, so you can spray the studs, call it a night and let it soak overnight. that 20 or so minutes I let it soak wasn't enough so broke 1 stud off each head (shop is taking care of that)


could not get one of the 2 collector nuts off, gave up, let it set all week with more PB, came right off next weeekend

if removing the cat, remove the tranny heat shield, my jack stands are set to to a low height, being too low made removing the cat difficult - collector flange gets hung up on the power steering lines. since i have another jack holding up the engine i dont want to mess with the height... it came out eventually with the right angle

building up part list now... still need to send off injectors

picked up the heads at lunch today. $149 for hot tank, valves, stem seals, stud extract/helicoil (to reiterate: after you get the heat shields off the exhaust manifold, PB the manifold studs and let soak overnight to avoid shearing off a stud)

heads look amazing! they also primered/painted it. i had some high heat silver but no need now.

finished up hand cleaning each pushrod, lifter, rocker. some were sludged inside, two which probably lost their hydraulic properties due to sludge buildup. ill prime them on install. this "before" rocker in the pic was probably the worst looking.


sludge in the oil pan. gonna get 2 gallons of diesel fuel and ill pour one gallon down the lifter valley to wash the sludge sitting the in pan - with plug out. then another gallon with plug in to soak the oil pump and screen. drain that out after a day. follow thru with a quart of motor oil and help push most of the diesel out. i will probably be neurotic and put 3 quarts of new oil in, prime the pump and see if i can wash more sludgy oil out, and drain it again.... last thing i want is sludge getting back into the lifters.

with this cleaning and devarnishing of parts, might have to run a higher weight oil due to loosening of clearances...

sludge in the oil pan. gonna get 2 gallons of diesel fuel and ill pour one gallon down the lifter valley to wash the sludge sitting the in pan - with plug out. then another gallon with plug in to soak the oil pump and screen. drain that out after a day. follow thru with a quart of motor oil and help push most of the diesel out. i will probably be neurotic and put 3 quarts of new oil in, prime the pump and see if i can wash more sludgy oil out, and drain it again.... last thing i want is sludge getting back into the lifters.

with this cleaning and devarnishing of parts, might have to run a higher weight oil due to loosening of clearances...

I'm even more paranoid than that...I'd chase the solvent with oil, change oil, run to operating temp, change oil again, then one more time after a couple hundred miles.

Using cheap oil, of course, until I put the oil that was gonna stay in there.

I always worry about that stuff ruining the treatment on the paper element in the filters and making it come apart or hog up...

jeff... we are about same level of paranoia.

* last night i poured a gallon of diesel (fuel, not oil) down the lifter valley to loosen up crud in the oil pan
* this morning i primed the oil pump until diesel came out of all the lifter passages
* drained the diesel
* put in 5 more quarts of diesel
* primed oil pump til it flowed clear
* drained the diesel
* refilled with cheapo dino oil
* primed oil pump til oil flowed, then ran the pump another 30 seconds

*this fresh oil will sit there til I get everything together and the engine running
*after first test drive I'll change out the oil and filter again (since there is still a bit of diesel inside)
*change oil again after about 1000 miles with more dino, then after 3k ill switch to synth blend, and eventually go full synthetic.


by the way, our oil pump is hex shaft, so it will need a ~8mm or 5/16-ish socket to drive it. I used a socket on a 1/4" flex shaft attached to my drill (go clockwise). I'm going to add some washers to the flex shaft and try to imitate the "Barrel and Cap" parts on the GM oil primer so I can fully prime the engine.

the GM oil primer with the aluminum barrel and cap will not work out of the box. You will need to mod it to fit the hex head. I don't know of any barrel & cap type oil primers with a hex head.


Parts list (just ordered a few minutes ago)

ACDELCO 14373S Coolant*Hose
ACDELCO 16028M Coolant*Hose
ACDELCO 14001S Coolant*Hose
FELPRO 70194 Distributor*Mounting*Gasket
FELPRO 60983 Throttle*Body*Gasket
FELPRO MS98004T Intake*Manifold*Gasket
FELPRO ES72225 Intake*Manifold*Bolt*Set
FELPRO MS95586 Exhaust*Manifold*Gasket
FELPRO ES72892 Cylinder*Head*Bolt
FELPRO ES71044 Valve*Cover*Grommet
FELPRO 70800 Distributor*O-Ring
ACDELCO 14 Spark*Plug
AUTOLIT 96832 Spark*Plug*Wire*Set
FEL-PRO 9957PT Cylinder*Head*Gasket



Rockauto beat out all the retail parts chains.

Costs so far:
Gaskets/plugs/wires/etc $263
Rebuild heads $149 (Local shop)
Injectors rebuilt and flowtested $100 (mailed to Mr Injector)
Direct fit cat ~$160

Still need to clean up the upper/lower intake, TB, and a few other misc parts.

absolutely not running dexcool. probably go xerex original green. twice shy of OAT based coolant...

tomorrow have to go house hunting but plan to put in a little wrench time


slowly hand cleaning the lower intake during the week :(

have an air siphon sprayer, will use it to blast the parts with diesel. will go much faster...

parts from rockauto came in couple days ago, and today the injectors arrived.....

here's the flow report....

Good for you pal... :thumbsup: This is how all repair/resto' work should be done UH HUH. Photo-doc'ed and dated.

SO MANY BENEFITS:
You get to KNOW your vehicle.
You learn how stuff works, where it is, and if something gives out later, you know right away what's up YUP.
You have fallback reference if you forget how it re-assembles.
When you $ell, you have photo-doc'ed repair work, and get more $$$.
Others get helped.
The website gets more hits.

I got multiple threads in vette forums for my vette, OVER 20,000 hits uh HUH.

To get the most 'jam' from the pan, you need a THIN fluid, not thick. GASOLINE.

It will move downward through the block quickly, and the faster it moves, the more jam it will carry with it. AND, gasoline will solve even carbon deposits on pistons and head surfaces (except for yours being redone), so you know it will loosen the Campbell's chunky jam in the pan as it moves through.

All the vapors will be gone by the time you pull the trigger, so that's not a problem either...


Did you push a pipecleaner through the pushrods?

Good call dumping the Dex-crudge. Been there did that x 4, including one bought NEW '02 Express.

When you pull the trigger first time, leave out the plugs. That makes the new oil really flow good, with no fire.

Little late now, but every time a part gets out of the way, the bolts go back in the empty hole, til it's time to chase/clean the bolt and hole. Bolts never get lost that way, and you think more about each part - good for the noggin'.

nuts and bolts went back in place or attached to the part and bagged with it.

all the pushrod holes are clean and clear, eyeballed them all (bagged with its lifter and rocker and labeled)

took lots of photos for assembly and marked connectors

piston heads are clean, keeping cylinders and pistons sprayed down to prevent flash rust

first crank will be plugless, make sure nothing is seized and having the engine destroy itself under power

ty for the review

cleaned and painted the exhaust manifolds (VHT 1200 degree paint)

every part i removed has been cleaned . feel like danielsan wax on wax off. various body parts are sore, and the sound of wire brush scraping now permeates my every thought.

i was about 75% done with the lower intake manifold, then looked at the upper. uh.. no way i am able toclean that... so dropped both manifolds at the machine shop that worked the heads for cleaning (i can't blast right now)

aside from the intake manifolds, if it didnt have paint from the factory, it gets painted. alternator excluded - i dont want to take it apart to paint it, might brush paint it sometime later.

last set of parts have only 1 coat on one side, had to put them away for some lady time today. :)

been thinking about the colors and decided to go with all silver, except the upper intake, which will be black with silver letters ("3100") since alot of parts are already black from the factory, or black plastic, i dont think it's going to be a wash of all silver under the hood, the black will make a good contrast. I picked silver because if you paint it black, you cant see anything under dim light and hard to see leaks. i think the silver/black is going to look good.

HEAD INSTALL TIP: Go ahead and get the exhaust manifold bolted and torqued onto the head before you install the head which is nearest the firewall. Lot easier to torque the manifold bolts while off the car!




question about head bolts.

got my new fel-pro head bolt set. you got a bunch of the regular type bolts, one with a 1" round extenton coming out of the head (for the bracket that bolts on which the motor mount attaches to on the passenger front of the car.

One of these bolts has a thread on TOP of the bolt head... where does that one go? i dont remember this bolt, is it extra? I havent found all my old head bolts so i dont know if this is extra or not... in case anyone knows before i figure it out on my own....


i've viewed pics on google for lumina 3.1L's but didnt see any headbolts installed on the engine that has a thread on top of the bolt head.

the fel-pro pic doesnt have the pic of the bolt i am talking about but the rockauto kit does have it.. its the 2nd from top left. Is that extra just so this kit can be used on various 3.1L?
http://174.143.96.117/BIN/images/RockProducts/HBK3147.jpg

i see in the pic there is 15+ two specials... i am thinking that you use ONE of the top left two. = 16


GOING TO ANSWER MY OWN QUESTION: in my box of head bolts, there are 15 regular bolts, and these two specials... so only one is used. i was pretty sure i didnt see that double thread bolt as i was pulling the heads.

finished painting today

the black factory painted parts i didnt have to repaint, i just cleaned them up. paint has held up well over the past 13 years. i finally got a car with decent factory paint, inside and out

my bolt painting booth, black lower intake bolts will be good contrast against silver lower intake, silver upper manifold bolts to contrast the black upper manifold...

i am going to have to clean and dress rest of engine compartment to match the engine. little by little as i address certain parts of the car, i'm going to refinish the parts like here.

Well I got the intakes back from the shop. They did a great job getting the inside of the upper manifold clean of all carbon buildup.

Paint/Prep I used. Couple light layers of adhesion promoter followed by black and silver. Didn't need hi heat on the manifold but I wanted an exact silver match with the rest of the parts I painted.

Silver detail. I sprayed silver in a 2-liter bottle cap and used a small brush. Hold the brush horizontally so you only paint the very top of the lettering and lines.

I masked the upper then started with some light coats, after spraying 1 coat, I would continue masking the lower in between coats. Then I went back and forth painting a light coat on each piece, allowing drying time between coats to prevent runs.

Might actually have time to assemble this weekend

Looks good man. Did you end up supporting the engine with a jack when you took off the top motor mounts to do the heads? I've taken both of those off before without even supporting the engine... is it really that bad to do? The lower mounts are still connected obviously. Did you have to remove any of the lower mounts to get the heads off? Thanks in advance.

yup, soft wood on top of a hydraulic jack to gently support the engine. i dont like supporting the weight of the engine on the oil pan, but it is a rigid honey-comb reinforced aluminum pan.

you have to remove the engine mounts from the heads. the right mount is just bolted to the side of the head, the left mount sits on the leftmost head bolt round stud.

so yes, both engine mounts must be removed in order to remove the heads.


you will have to loosen (not remove) two bolts on the a/c compressor. with the compressor a bit loose, you can wiggle the engine mount out.


another way to hold the engine up, is to have it in park, roll the car back a tad. This will pull the engine vertical. Then make sure the wheels can't move and hold the engine in position

Are the only ones you removed the ones that attach to the upper dogbones? Those are the ones I've completely removed before with no support underneath... did I mess my axles or trans up by doing this? I assumed there were lower mounts that held it in place as well... I hope i didnt crush anything...

only removed the uppers.

your transmission in park is what held the engine up. no you didn't harm it.

Even if I had the trans in neutral? I guess I'm just confused why its necessary to support the bottom of the engine. When i've done plugs before I've removed both dogbones and pulled the engine forward and not even attaching straps till after theyve been removed.

im surprised it stayed in position then... maybe the bottom mount is tight enough to keep the engine from tilting when you remove the uppers. mine needed to be supported a little bit from the bottom

Hehe, now you see why I am nervous that I may have crushed something. Oh well... hopefully that is not the case. I will definitely hold it in place with a jack now that I know. Thanks a lot for clearing that up.

started assembly on 3/20. cranked engine a good bit (without spark plugs installed) to prime the oil pump and get oil circulating thru the engine.

Wow, thanks for posting all the pictures. This will really help out when it comes time to reassemble mine. Is it okay to clean the heads and springs with engine degreaser?

was househunting today so nothing was accomplished on the car.

ya degreaser is fine.

if you are cleaning parts by hand ... the heads are going to take alot of time - especially the runners. you won't be doing much for the valves and seats unless you take the valves out.

since the 3.1L has an egr, puts alot of carbon in the the upper manifold, which is very difficult to clean by hand.

TB cleaner would work the best on the carbon. if you blast, i would use soda over traditional abrasives.

machine shop cleaned and rebuilt my heads, and cleaned/blasted my upper/lower intake... those along with valve covers, i'd let a machine shop clean them, or it will take you hours.

exhaust manifolds, heat shields, brackets, bolts, throttle body clean up easy enough.

rockers/pushrods/lifters clean up easy and i would never take them to a shop for cleaning b/c of the chance of them getting mixed up. I had them all bagged and tagged so there was no mixup, and i only worked with one bag at a time, and still reverified that the 1st, 4th, and 6th push rod was the longer (exhaust) when reinstalling. i used diesel with brass brushes and those round bottle brushes

i picked up a couple of fittings for a pump i have, I am going to cut in half my old lower rad hose, then connect fittings to garden hose, connect 1 hose to water pump, other to lower rad outlet. then run the pump to circulate water in 1 bucket and hopefully get trash to settle in the bucket.

then ill pump clean distilled water from one bucket into the engine, and at the lower rad is a hose leading into a discharge bucket.

ill remove the thermostat and use this to flush the remaining traces of dexcool and sludge, remains of leak fix, etc.

Got some fittings for a pump I have and made a coolant flush machine.

Hoping to get all the sludge and crud out of the block and radiator.

Thermostat will be removed.

The filter is a plastic jug with holes cut, wrapped with nylon screen, stapled together.

Hopefully can get this to run unattended for a couple hours. I've got some steel spikes to put in the jug to keep it from floating.

The white pvc parts will be connected to 1/2 of the old rad hose.

Pump inlet hose in bucket of distilled water pushes water into the water pump inlet.

Water then circulates thru the block, pushing out any trash and old dexcool.

Water goes thru the rad, and out the lower rad outlet. this goes into the bucket to fill it up. Once this bucket has filled up some, I swap the intake hose to this bucket and circulate water, hopefully getting sediment to stay in the bucket.

Then I'll drain the system, blow air thru to get water out.

Then refill with coolant and distilled water.

I can flush the heater core separately.

I have a question regarding the rear head. You show a picture where you have connected the exhaust manifold to the head prior to installation. Does this mean the head can be pulled out with the exhaust manifold still attached or will doing so just make it impossible to remove the bolts?

I have a question regarding the rear head. You show a picture where you have connected the exhaust manifold to the head prior to installation. Does this mean the head can be pulled out with the exhaust manifold still attached or will doing so just make it impossible to remove the bolts?


yup you can remove the head with the exhaust manifold and heat shields attached, and install them attached, too.

it is an advantage to have your exhaust manifold torqued correctly, off the car.

do you have to get under the car to access the exhaust manifold nuts/bolts or is that just necessary for removal of the pipe? doesn't look like there is much room to get at exhaust manifold area from under the car. I've got the intake manifolds off but I want to pull the heads off too just to be safe.

after you remove the intake manifold,

get under the car, unbolt the two nuts at the main exhaust collector (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=38581&d=1268518601) (connects to the catalytic converter).... soak these two nuts in Parts Blaster for a day or two in advance. For me, one of these two nuts was *very* difficult to remove. I also needed about 2 foot of socket extensions.

Then you remove the heat shield and exhaust pipe that connects the front exhaust to the rear.

Disconnect the egr tube, disconnect the O2 sensor, and various brackets, ignition module, etc... then you can remove the heads.

For the rear, you can leave the exhaust manifold on the heads. I highly encourage this!

AFTER REMOVING THE EXHAUST HEAT SHIELDS, SOAK ALL MANIFOLD STUDS/NUTS IN PB BLASTER OVERNIGHT. Don't be tempted to continue disassembly or you will break off frozen studs.... I lost two that way.

Will I be able to break the exhaust manifold free from the head once they are removed together as one piece though?

yup. just soak the studs in PB blaster for a day. I never let the combustion side of the heads touch the ground, flip the head/manifold upside down and loosen the manifold nuts. those dont take much effort.

the two collector nuts are the hardest. I finally got them loose with a 600 ft/lb air torque wrench. would not budge until i soaked the 2 nuts in PB blaster for a couple days then came off fairly easy.

also.. unbolt the 4 bolts (soak in PB blaster) connecting the back of the cat to the muffler pipe... easier to get the head/manifold on and off.

I've got the ac compressor unbolted, where are the other bolts securing the bracket to the engine? I've been trying to look from every angle.

ok sorry, got bolts mixed up.

remove the two bolts from the a/c compressor as they go thru the bracket. the third bolt is a few inches directly below the water pump inlet hose! Altho in the b/w drawing, the bolt appears to be just above the left a/c bolt, just FURTHER in. I think i found it by feel.

the three bolt heads are all the same size...


and dont forget there is a top bolt, you get to after you take the horizontal bracket arm off the top of the mount. right next to left most head bolt which has that round protrusion which the bracket sits on.


3 bolts down below... 4th bolt on top.

argh. did a compression test before i got everything together. Should have done this before i put the intake on.

almost no compression in cylinder 3. All others were good. Might have a pushrod misaligned, and the pushrod is not resting in the center of the lifter. The reason I suspect pushrod is because i forgot to torque down the rockers before installing the intake (grrr)

I know I don't have intake/exhaust mixed up because i bagged each separately and made sure correct length anyway, when reinstalling. Going to pop the rockers off those two valves on cylinder 3 and do a leakdown test.

Really doubting the rings are worn out on just this one cylinder, most likely carbon buildup has the rings sticking, which will eventually clear up with clean oil. Also being a cold engine, sitting for a long time, all the more likely - if not the misaligned pushrod.

Doing the wet compression test last.

Where'd you jack up your car? Mine has horrible and i mean HORRIBLE rusting on the pinch welds to the point where it is eating through the surrounding metal. I definitely do not trust jacking it from that area. I've tried the crossmember with my floor jack but due to the angled shape of the crossmember, the jack slipped (good thing it was early on rather than later). I'm thinking of buying a new floor jack with a bigger saddle and possible a rubber insert to accommodate this.

near the wheel. roll the jack in from behind the wheel at a 45 degree angle, there's solid steel there. probably not an accepted jacking point

well the threads for a rocker arm on cylinder 3 was stripped. might have been cause of lack of compression in that cylinder. torqued ok when i installed it the first time... but not when i tried to torqued it down today....


took the head off ...grr.. got some heli-coil and went ahead and replaced all the aluminum threads for the rocker arms (M10-1.5 threads) and then the diagonal intake manifold threads (M8-1.25 threads)

stainless steel > aluminum !

had to get new head gaskets and head bolts :(

still debating on whehter i should open this new box of intake gaskets or use the one I just put on there...

had to get new head gaskets and head bolts :(

Were new intake manifold bolts required the first time around or just head bolts?

if you buy the lower intake bolts, you can only use the 4 long ones, the 4 shorter bolts were too short and one stripped some thread out (helicoiled now)

so im not getting new lower intake bolts

and by the way, i recommend helicoil type steel inserts in the aluminum threads. next time i'll use the drill press so i can setup the perfect angle and depth

got the head back on and no more compression issues. installed lower/upper intake and other various parts.

i decided to reuse the lower intake gasket. it looked in perfect condition... this metal/rubber gasket looks lot more durable than the old plastic type. i did use a new head gasket and new head bolts.

Congrats for being done man. I got the rear head pulled off thanks to all of your support and answers to my dumb questions. The spot behind the wheel worked well with my new jack. Instead of using jackstands on the rusting metal, I went ahead and placed my ramps under each wheel by jacking one side up at a time. I was able to use both a 16 inch and a 24 inch extension as well as my breaker bar attached to that for collector bolt removal (it was a bitch, but I got it). I'll go ahead and pull the front head tomorrow which will be much easier. Thanks again for the detailed explanations and pictures. It has helped tremendously.

I do have one concern. While I was inspecting the lower intake gasket I did notice rear right water jacket area was cracked. I simply touched this piece (about an inch and a half long) and it FELL INTO the coolant passage :( I tried to fish it out but it went further down and I think its in the actual block... Is this piece of plastic going to destroy my hoses or worse CLOG some of the smaller passages? What can I do? I can't help but worry that that one little thing is going to cause some kind of damage when everything else so far has been fine... haven't broken one thing.

after you reinstall the heads and intake, take your thermostat out and flush the plastic piece out ... remove your upper rad hose from the rad and point the hose down into a bucket. do this before complete reassembly so you can put the thermostat back in fairly easily.

and im *almost* done.. still got power steering pump, alt, electrical connectors, egr, ignition, etc to put on... i didnt spend much time today working on it.

bout to close on a house, 2 car garage... i wont spend 50% of my time hunting for parts and tools

compression btw was 50-60psi on first rotation, then 168-175 ish on the 4th compression stroke. I had the intake off when doing this, after i was done i put the spark plugs in, easier to get to, before installing the intake and accessories.

It probably wont make it through some of the passages (or the metal coolant tube) even if i flush it though... I wonder if I could shoot compressed air in the coolant passages on the block and see if it comes flying out of an adjacent one?

did you drain the block front and back with both drain plugs on the block? front one is a few inches right of the oil filter, the rear is down low near the steering assembly (i think)

might can spot it with a flash light and use one of those parts grabbers to fish it out

not alot in the way of passages, the coolant jacket in the block is one large chamber around all the cylinders. if it fell in there then it should float on out of there, into the lower intake and out the thermostat

make sure you get the steel/rubber intake gasket... MS98....T.

I will look at it better with a flashlight tomorrow and see if I can find it. If not, hopefully I will be able to find the block drain plugs.

if you are going to prime the oil pump before startup, i used a 8mm (i think) socket on an extension going into a drill. TAPE the socket to the extension so it wont fall off.

NONE of the parts places has the right oil primer drill attachment. You can get the GM V6 V8 primer (one with the cap and sliding barrel on the shaft) you'll have to cut off the end and permanently attach (jb weld) a socket on the end.

if you want to try then, then use your oil pump drive you just removed to determine the exact length of your modded oil primer.


using the socket/extension, you are going to see that you can't get much oil to the lifters. Sometimes the oil will squirt into the holes but you wont get any pressure because you dont have the cap/barrel to contain the oil flow.

what i did with lifters, was before inserting them, i removed the clip and cap and disc and filled up with oil, had my thumb over the side hole, reassembled, and put lifter in the block.

if you have any sludging, i recommend cleaning out the lifters. when disassembling, make sure you are in an area where you can find the clip when it bounces off.... careful on the spring/ball bearing at the bottom of the cup. after it's clean, might want to use Throttle Body cleaner (use the straw) and push on the ball bearing a little, and give it a good blast.

Argh, that alternator is hard to install....

Cranked, it died (I think the PCM does that on purpose, first crank after battery was disconnected), then it cranked right up. Heard some lifter ticking, which went away.

Woot, didn't forget a single electrical or vacuum connection.

Now she's smoking a bit, curing the paint, right now she's quiet as a whisper, even with the higher flow magnaflow cat. Shifts ok too.

Right now I have just distilled water in the coolant. Low coolant light was on a little too long for me, finally went out after feeding the rad more water. I'm going to add coolant flush tomorrow. Probably 1 - 2 water flushes before I add antifreeze.

Also will add oil flush tomorrow before I change the oil.

Now I need to drive about 80 miles til the PCM has had time to adjust (I suppose the long/short term fuel trim) A car won't pass our emissions test if battery has been disconnected, have to drive it.

Low Coolant light keeps going off. I'm going to have to remove the low coolant sensor and clean it. there was a tsb i think about oil getting into cooling system, and creating an insulating film on the sensor, causing it to go off... and i got plenty oil still in the cooling system...

btw the "low coolant sensor" is several inches below rad cap, on passenger side.
not to be confused with the coolant temp sensor, which is on the lower intake, close to the water outlet/tstat.

more pics

still need to drain enough water to add some prestone coolant flush, drive it a few days. I will probably remove the thermostat when i am ready to flush again. I put the thermostat in b/c I really needed to take it to emissions testing (she passed) to get my tag.... i feared no thermostat would keep it from going closed loop or throw a code.

lumina wouldnt start this morning. needs idle relearn. drove 50 miles, short trips, with no problem until today. went home for lunch, she cranked when i had my foot lightly on the accelerator pedal. cuts off when i left off the pedal. There is a great thread here (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=454660&highlight=idle+relearn) for idle relearn. jeranamo you may need this after you get your car running. This is the first time I've had to force a relearn on the lumina, she's always relearned on her own.

A/C is dead... clutch not engaging. gonna hook the a/c gauges up and see if that is because there is a low pressure switch preventing the clutch from engaging. Few months ago the a/c was working, i would cycle it every time i occasionally cranked her.

Also upcoming - front brakes. Bought the parts couple years ago before i laid her up. will do outer ball joints since last alignment they said i should replace the driver's side before they could get it aligned well (too much wobble). I hope I got ceramic pads.

well she's good to go, idle problem comes and goes. hopefully the last work i do in my undersized 1 car garage.

today did oil change after 180 miles. oil was clean coming out.

and did probably my 3rd 'coolant' drain (I've been using distilled water only). this time I added 1 gallon of plain green (NAPA) antifreeze. still dirty, i'll do complete flush (no thermostat) with garden hose next month after i move in my new house.

put freon in, a/c ice cold. check on it to make sure leak fix worked (may have been dried o-rings since its been sitting a while)

she finally threw the 0506 code ... low idle rpm. i been saying that for days........

iac not working when cold, when engine is hot, it frees up some and it idles better, i suppose. brought my measuring calipers to AZ, got a new one popped it in (my old measured above 1 1/8" so i didnt adjust the new iac)

started it up (woops forgot to do key on - key off to reset the new iac) and it idled high. turned off / on. cranked right up at correct idle.

post pics of old LIM gasket and head gaskets, each side. 100k on the LIM gasket, 184k on the head gasket. head gasket was swelling around bolt holes and cooling jackets.

also. pointing out where to look for external LIM gasket leaks

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=977985
did that earlier this year, pics / the discussion might help

her oil is lovely now :) last change was conventional, bout to go full synthetic on her from now on... sounds like new again, whisper quiet at 55mph, zero engine noise/vibration (inside the cab), feels like im driving a car with the engine off. using only chevron gas to help prevent the disgusting buildup I found on teardown...

dont think i mentioned in my thread, but open both block drain plugs to prevent getting coolant in the cylinders, one by oil filter other near firewall have to feel for it, just on top of the rack and pinion... just opening the front wont drain both banks

felpro still makes the plastic intake gasket, btw make sure yours is the metal version

her oil is lovely now :) last change was conventional, bout to go full synthetic on her from now on... sounds like new again, whisper quiet at 55mph, zero engine noise/vibration (inside the cab), feels like im driving a car with the engine off. using only chevron gas to help prevent the disgusting buildup I found on teardown...

dont think i mentioned in my thread, but open both block drain plugs to prevent getting coolant in the cylinders, one by oil filter other near firewall have to feel for it, just on top of the rack and pinion... just opening the front wont drain both banks

felpro still makes the plastic intake gasket, btw make sure yours is the metal version

Spent the past 2 days tearing down the engine and it seems that I wasn't the first to do so on this car...

Moment I took off the plennium the upper intake gaskets disintegrated. I found 3 of the exhaust manifold bolts snapped off (someone carefully hid them in the corner of the heat shields on the rear and front) so I had to get those out. The exhaust gaskets were shot, and the head gaskets were starting to swell a bit. Replaced the head/exhaust gaskets, cleaned up the heads a bit and went after the intakes.

The lower intake had already been replaced with the 2nd GM revision, but the RTV used between the heads was failing and causing part of the leak. Gaskets had seen better days as well (internals were starting to separate) so I replaced them with the metal Felpro one.

Now I'm just waiting for my injectors to get back from Mr. Injector so I can finishing putting the engine back together. Hopefully everything else goes smoothly...

Overall the engine seemed sludge free! Bit of carbon build up on the pistons, but the cylinders looked excellent. It has 223,000 miles on it, so I was expecting much worse considering I've only had the car for the past 50,000 or so. :)

Your pics/tips really helped out a bunch! Thanks for taking the time to document this!

Anyways, for those interested I have a fun little story about my rebuild...

Finally put everything back together tonight. Engine cranked after the 3rd time (first was a no-go, 2nd was a sputter) and sounded a bit uneven/harsh in general. I let it heat up a bit, and started working on getting the cooling system bled. Bit tougher than normal as a lot of air was in the system.

Turned the car off once I bled it a bit, topped the radiator off, and turned it back on and I heard a collapsed lifter. :runaround:

I immediatly thought to myself "crap...I don't want to tear this thing down again" I shut the car back off and let it sit for a bit while I thought about what the cause could be (IE: What did I screw up?). Flustered, I started the car back up...and it was still there. I tried one more time after this attempt in hopes it would just go away or something and it did after a few seconds! :iceslolan

Took it for a ride just now and the performance improvement is amazing. Engine is quiet, less vibration, and much better acceleration.