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Head gasket on a Saturn (Opel) 54 degree v6?

Hi everyone, My girlfriend has an '01 L300 that has spent its entire automotive career leaking coolant from various places - trans cooler, radiator, water pump, and now it seems the head gasket (at least according to her mechanic - I thought I smelled some vaguely "sweet" exhaust a while ago, but was convinced that the MIL code she was getting was from a bad MAF [code for lean, right bank]).

From a few hours of googling, I can't find a thing about this engine,

whether in Opel, Vauxhall, Saturn, Cadillac, or Saab variants. It's a bit ridiculous - there's not even a bootleg CD-ROM manual on ebay!

So does anyone know what is involved in doing a head gasket on one of these motors? I doubt the head itself is damaged, as the car has never overheated. I'm hoping for a quick gasket replacement, and maybe having someone clean up the face on the heads. Is this do-able with the motor in the car? (I'm young, fit, and stubborn, so discomfort is not so much an issue as sheer mechanical impossibility). Any crazy tools needed?

I know there's not a lot of these cars, but surely somebody, somewhere, has torn down the top end of one...

Reply to
jonathan.robins
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I have an '01 lw300 and love it. Thankfully with 105K, it has been pretty trouble-free. I bought the factory shop manual ($140 through saturn parts or

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. Well worth it to have. This is a nice, powerful engine but not very service friendly. I was considering replacing the timing belt myself (something I have done on other cars) and was put off by the number of special tools required for locking the camshafts and aligning the cam timing. Not worth the cost so I let a local independant shop do the job instead for about $600. If you need to do the cylinder heads, you have to remove the timing belt so use my experience as a starting point. What got me to change the belt finally was that the water pump bearings had gotten very noisy. It was not leaking yet but was not right and needed service.

Good luck - Oppie

Reply to
Oppie

Ouch, she just had the timing belt done when the water pump was replaced about 2 months ago. I had read about the special tools and decided to leave that one alone, although I'm rather skeptical that the indie mechanic shop the car went to had the cam holders and whatnot...

Is it feasible to just leave the cam sprockets > I have an '01 lw300 and love it. Thankfully with 105K, it has been pretty

orwww.helminc.com. Well worth it to have. This is a nice, powerful engine but

Reply to
jonathan.robins

I would have it confirmed that the head gasket is leaking. You can also get an idea of when this happens because the coolant reservoir tends to overflow and blow bubbles when the engine is running. It is a big deal even to get to the spark plugs - having to remove the whole intake plenum. We used to pull the plugs to see which ones were wet. No more on this engine.

It is not practical to leave the timing belt on when removing the head. The cams are under a fair ammount of tension and will slip position without the holders retaining them. The head will have to come off if you are certain of the head gasket leaking. The head and block should be checked for warpage and mating surfaces cleaned. While the head is off if there is nothing else wrong, you might want to get the valve stem seals replaced and valves at least inspected. Unfortunately it's going to be an expensive fix...

Reply to
Oppie

I think I'm probably going to pass on this one - but for reference, here's a site that says it will rent out the timing belt cam and crank holder tools!

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Reply to
jonathan.robins

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