How big of job is it to replace the 3.4L intake gasket

I do all the maintenance on our vehicles and have noticed lately that my wife's 2001 Impala is loosing antifreeze somewhere. The oil doesn't look like there is anything it it but a small amount I wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it anyway. I don't see any antifreeze on the floor or driveway so I don't know where its going but given the 3.4L history I would bet its starting to leak in the intake gasket. I haven't picked up a service manual for this yet can someone tell me if its a job that I could do, I mean unbolt the throttle body and anything else attached to the upper intake, pull it off, pull the lower, replace the gasket, reinstall. Anything I need to watch for or any bolts need to be a specific torque? Thanks Eugene

Reply to
Eugene
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It's a good job. You can do itself. Just be sure to get yourself a GM shop manual, a torque wrench, time and patients. You're looking at 8 hours if you haven't done it before, and that's barring any other trouble that you may encounter.

Reply to
clevere

How much experience do you have in engine rebuilding? It is a little more than just replacing the gasket as sealants have to be put in the right places. You need a service manual and the service bulletin.

Reply to
Qwack

I rebuilt the 2.5 in my s-10 when I drove too long with the radiator rotted out and it blew and overheated before I could get off the highway. I haven't yet gotten a factory shop manual and it miht take some time if I order one and I was wanting to move quick on this to prevent any engine damage, If I can get a copy of the service bulletin will it tell me everything I need.

Reply to
Eugene

Sounds like lack of coolant changes in the past.

Some things that are important for a job like this that wont be covered in the book. Not sure if the book covers this one but drain your coolant before you start so when you pull the intake off coolant doesnt get dumped into your engine. The other is to keep you lifter valley super clean. You dont want chunks of what ever falling into your lifters. Use masking tape and suran wrap to cover that area while you clean the surfaces of the ports. Have a shop vac on hand to clean everything up nice. If its an aluminum surface use a plastic scrapper, if its iron use a metal scrapper. Thats all the advice I can give really.

Reply to
Bon·ne·ville

Yea that too. I treated it like any other college student would, but as hard as I was on that truck its still running, just about rusted apart but still runs with 170,000 miles. I drove it hard and never did any maintenance, the differential and trnasmission fluid are original. Replaced the stock spark plug wires when I rebuilt the engine, hauled over

1 ton of lumber, hauled cattel on it, carried millions of dollars in computer and e-911 equipment for installs. Right after I rebuilt the engine I got a better job so I bought a 2000 s-10.

Any special torque on the bolts? Any special places I need to put sealant on the gasket or is this a put nothing but the gasket on?

Reply to
Eugene

"Eugene" wrote

132 "inch" lbs on the 4 middle bolts and the 4 outer bolts initially. Then you torque the outer bolts to 18 "foot" lbs.

No sealant on the gasket. The two end sections where you install RTV should be perfectly clean and dry (use brake cleen).

There are new bolts available that come with the proper loctite already installed on the bolt threads. If you are not able to get these bolts, clean the old ones and use a medium strength loctite on the intake bolts (lower intake only)

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

Order the shop manual online from Helm and you will have it in a couple days. Do some google searches on the problem and read some of the information on the web. You may find a pointer to the bulletin. I had the url but dumped it along with the Venture and went to a Honda. There is a major problem with a company that makes an engine that disintegrates in 40k miles and won't stand behind it......

Reply to
Ducky

Hi, I replaced the intake manifold gasket on my 3.4L 95' Camaro, and it wasn't too bad.

I would definently give yourself 8 hours to do it for the first time. And if your car is designed anything like mine, make sure to try extra hard to keep all the bolts and nuts organized and seperated. Cause with the plenum ("upper" intake manifold) there is a lot of junk you gotta pull off.

I used my Haynes manual along with Autozone's suprisingly detailed free vehicle repairs guides:

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CHeck out the autozone repair guides and you'll get a much better feeling for the process.

It's not too bad. Though on the camaro, I had to uninstall the rockers arms to slide the new gaskets in on each side of the manifold. And then I had to reset the valve lash. Which makes this project a dual-fold project if you've never done either. But, no repair guide ever mentioned having to do to that. So I don't know if maybe my car is just special.

Best of luck, and email me if you have any questions (nospam) snipped-for-privacy@ncf.edu.

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Reply to
Tim Payne

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Reply to
Bon·ne·ville

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