Ian intake question for you

Ian,

I would like to know how many hours are allowed by GM to do the intake manifold gasket on a Montana and on a Century, both 2002. Can you give me now the real time that a decent tech will take to do the same job ?

Any after market gasket kit to recommend ?

Thanks

Reply to
rick
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"rick" wrote

Warranty time for the Montana ends up at around the 4.6-4.8 hr mark. The Century would be a bit less, probably around the 4.2 hr mark. When I'm motivated and everything goes right...I can do the van's in about 2 hrs and the cars in about 1.5 hrs. When the vehicles are off warranty, the Century would pay about 5.9 hrs and the van's are around the 6.5-7.0 hr range.

At this point, no. I would go with the updated GM gasket that has the metal pellets imbedded in the gasket at the ends. If you can find aftermarket gaskets that have the same design....they should work just fine. I'm sure everyone is aware that GM's gaskets are most likely made by "one" of the aftermarket gasket makers anyway.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_Kai

Still Federal Mogul? AKA McCord / FelPro. Or is AFG doing some now?

Reply to
Steve W.

I'm sure they're made by Victor-reinz:

A Dana company, sold through NAPA, Car Quest and many other independent auto parts stores.

They have the aluminum pellets embedded in the ends and also have a permanently tacky silicone adhesive in the package.

I hope this input helps?

Refinish King

PS

Reply to
Refinish King

Thanks Ian, wow 1.5 hrs !!! Thats is going to be more like 10 hrs if done by me ....

BTW do you know a site where I can download the procedures for both vehicule ??

Thanks once again

Reply to
rick

"rick" wrote

I don't know of a site. I have a few pictures myself, but I don't think I have enough to put together a complete pictorial procedure. I can do it off the top of my head with text if you want. On the vans, there are two ways to do the job. The first way, you remove both valve covers, the second way (much faster) you do not remove the rear valve cover, coil packs, or alternator. Let me know if you want the procedure (pretty much the same for both vehicles other then some space issues) and I'll see if I can type it out.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_Kai

Please do Ian. I am very interested in this topic also.

Regards, Al.

Reply to
Al Haunts

Ian, that would be really nice to have, You can mail it at snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com when ready Like that I'll be sure to get it Thanks alot for your help

Richard

Reply to
rick

"rick" wrote

Ok, I'll go over the basic procedure for the van.

First step would be to drain the coolant. This year, you need a 1/4 inch square drive ratchet and preferably a short extension. Use the 1/4" ratchet to turn the drain c*ck counter clockwise about an 1/8 of turn, then you have to pull the drain c*ck out while turning it further.

Next...pull the rubber hood seal off at the front of the cowl area...then you can pull off that plastic piece that covers the wiper motor area (passenger side of the engine compartment.

Pull the air filter housing and snorkel..usually, I find it easier to remove the rubber section first, and then you have more room to remove the air filter cover and air filter. There are a couple of electrical connections on the snorkel and the MAF sensor, unplug them...and then follow that wire harness back and unplug everything else on it, except where it plugs into the coil pack ( oh yeah, I'm going to give you the "faster" version). So you should have a couple more sensors at the throttle body, a red connector at the evap solenoid and then a harness clip at the coil pack. You can position this harness back over the coil pack. Remove the front three spark plug wires at the coil pack. Unhook all the clips that hold those wires to the engine, but don't bother to take the wires off the front plugs, just lay the wires over the front of the rad support. Remove the vacuum booster hose at the upper plenum.

Remove the two bolts that secure the coil pack bracket to the upper intake plenum (10 mm head). Now you want to remove the MAP sensor which sits bolted to a small bracket on the upper plenum right in front of the coil pack. You will need a 7 mm socket or wrench to undo the two long screws that hold it in place. Then unhook the vacuum lines and the electrical connector and lay the sensor and vacuum lines somewhere. Now you can remove the upper plenum bolts. At the passenger rear side of the upper plenum, there is a small brace that goes from the alternator to one of the bolts in the upper plenum. Get that brace off and then you can take that one plenum bolt out.

Now go to the back of the engine, you need to find the EGR pipe that comes up to the upper plenum and EGR valve. The temptation is to remove the valve, but don't bother. Just remove the bolt that holds the flexible pipe to the upper plenum. There is also a small nut that holds the Transmission filler tube to a stud on the upper plenum. You need to remove that and push the filler tube off that stud. There is also one nut at the throttle body that holds a coolant pipe in place, remove that and disconnect the two small throttle body coolant hoses at the back of the engine there. At this point you should be able to remove the upper plenum. Do "not" bend the coil pack bracket up to give yourself clearance. This makes it very difficult to start those bolts properly later on. Just slide the upper plenum out from underneath it. You may notice that I said nothing about the cables to the throttle body. I do not disconnect them, just leave them on the plenum and flip the plenum upside down and off to the side. It will just sit there.

Next, you need to remove the fuel rail and injectors. There are two 10mm head bolts that hold the rail to the lower intake, and one that holds the fuel lines to a bracket at the rear of the rear head. Remove all three, carefully pry/pull the fuel injectors and rail out of the holes. Take a close look at the injectors once you have them out, any o-rings that have come off need to be retrieved from the intake manifold area. Sometimes they will just be loose, other times, they are stuck in the injector holes. Again, I don't disconnect the fuel lines, just position the rail and lines off to the side somewhere.

There is a heater pipe that goes into the lower intake at the rear of the engine. You need to simply loosen the nut that holds it to a stud at the rear of the rear head, and then you can pull the pipe out of the intake. Note: replace that o-ring seal.

There is also a heater pipe and bypass pipe assembly that runs along the front of the front valve cover. That is the same pipe that had the two small throttle body hoses connected to it. Remove it, and either move it off to the side, or disconnect the "quick connect" fitting (sometimes they aren't all the "quick" and so I just leave them).

Now you can remove the front valve cover, if you need room to get at the one bolt, remove the left engine strut and you can get a run at the bolt. Then loosen the two rear valve cover bolts that you can see. One will be under the alternator, the other is under the coil pack. In both cases, there is just enough room to completely loosen the two bolts.

Now you have to deal with the power steering pump. Remove the small plastic shield that sits right above the water pump pulley (this just give you a little more clearance for the ps pump pulley). Now, remove the serpentine belt. Then remove the three bolts that hold the pump to the engine, you can access them thru the bolts in the pulley. They are 13 mm bolts. Now, you must loosen the ps pressure hose fitting at the pump. Use a 5/8 wrench and just loosen it until the hose will be able to move. In other words, don't completely remove the hose. Now, reach your hand down the two ps hoses and you will find some plastic clips that the hoses are in. Pop the Pressure hose (left one as you look down at the two hoses) out of the plastic clip. Now, you should be able to pull the pump up and lay it down between the front of the engine and windshield washer bottle. You may need to fiddle with the rubber return hose, as there is a bracket in it's way, you can move the hose around the bracket.

At this point, remove the lower intake bolts (8 of them) and the upper rad hose from the lower intake. The intake should now slide out from under the rear valve cover. Trust me, it comes out. Now you have to loosen the rockers arms enough so that you can get the push rods out. The rear rocker arm bolts can be reached, even though the rear valve cover is in place. Just loosen each rocker arm just enough to be able to remove the push rods. Keep them in order, as it's important that you don't mix them up.

Clean up your gasket surfaces..etc. Then install your intake gaskets to the head first, then the push rods. Short pushrods to the intake valves, long to the exhaust valves. Be meticulous about cleaning the front and rear surfaces of the block and the intake manifold, as this is where the RTV sealer goes. Also clean the joint between the rear valve cover and the cylinder head and where the intake manifold will meet the two of them. Do not mess with the rear valve cover gasket, just make sure it stays up in it's groove. Before you install the intake, make sure you have a nice bead of RTV on the front and rear mating surfaces, and put a dab of RTV in that corner where the rear v/c and head and intake will meet. From there, it's pretty well just the reverse of the removal procedure. Don't bother trying to tighten those two rear valve cover bolts until you have torqued down the intake manifold. Then they will just slide right in. Also, when you install the upper plenum, you are going to slide it back under the coil pack, and then engage the EGR pipe and the throttle body coolant hoses. Take your time here, and make sure everything is where it should be before tightening down the intake bolts.

Hope this helps, and all goes well. The procedure for the Century will be almost identical, other then the Trans dipstick tube.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_Kai

Thank you Ian

Reply to
Al Haunts

Wow, lots of work for us there thanks a lots Ian for your time Richard

Reply to
rick

"rick" wrote

No problem. I did forget one thing (probably others too, but this one stands out). When you re-install the fuel rail, make sure that you lubricate the injector o-rings and the holes that they will slide into. I use the silicone lubricant that we use on brake caliper slides. If you do not lubricate these seals, often you can peel them right off the injector as you install them, which will result in a vacuum leak that will be hard to find.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_Kai

Unless it's changed, most of the engine gaskets for the big three are made by Detroit Gasket. I know this because I use Hill Engineering in Chicago Illinois to build custom equipment for our plant. Hill also designs and builds special dies and tooling for gaskets for Detroit Gasket. So through our relation ship with Hill I know that Detroit Gasket is an OEM supplier.

Brian

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NoSpam

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