LIM gasket change walkthrough

[Emerica12124]

Why do you say the yellow stuff is better?

[gectek]

doesnt give the dex glue, and doesnt have the tendency to eat alum if you dont service it regularly, and it doesnt get that nasty haze to it like the dex does, and mine is still very clear even after 10k miles of driving like i stole it, and it doesnt discolor the coolant reservoir like the dex does, i really like it and i didnt think i would

there is hope yet

[Emerica12124]

Why do we have dex cool then if what you just said is all true. Seems like dex cool is the worst thing. I can see it turning the reservior bottle a werid discoloration. I just painted mine gloss black today with a little window so i can see where the level is, along with the valve covers and t-stat housing. Just waiting to get back my parts from 60 degree v6. Cant wait.

[angrysk8r]

Originally Posted by Robotix

Well...I am halfway through and I have two points.....

1. You CANT do this job without a swivel attachment for the socket set...you need this to take off the power steering pump, there is NO other way.

2. After removing the alternator you MUST take off the alternator bracket to get to the last bolt on the rear valve cover gasket there is NO other way...there are FOUR bolts on the bracket one being the bolt that holds the tension arm on.

Neither of these is true. There are other tools you can use besides a swivel attachment to reach those bolts. Also, I was able to remove my rear valve cover without removing the bracket.

Yea so...more problems.

The car runs and drives..but the idle is very rough. My SES comes on then starts blinking...

i know you can get the code read but from what I hear you have to pay money just for them to read the code....and i really dont want to do that.

im guessing a injector is clogged or something, i cant think of what else would be wrong. It doesnt sound like the engine is misfiring although it might be.

Just when I slow down to idle the car feels jumpy and shaky and at a stop its very shaky. What could it be?

[alerored04]

that is what mine did. The blinking ses light is a misfire. Advance or napa reads and clears codes for free. Did you find all of the chunks of the fuel rail o ring that you lost? Cause i didnt find all the parts of mine. It went into the rail and clogged an injector. I found a used set of injectors on aleromod and swapped them all. Runs great now. Best place to start is wiring. Make sure all the plug wires are tight. Are the plugs good? After that check the fuel rail not only for leaks but make sure all the wires on the harness are on tight. If you have a friend that works at a dealership like i do they might scan it for free with the scanner that napa doesnt have and tell which cyl is missing, that way you know where to focus. Good luck.

omgggg...okay so i got pissed and took apart the fuel rail again...took it completely off and inspected each injector.

I then noticed when taking off and looking at the cylinder 2 injector on the opening that goes INTO the fuel rail it seemed to be clogged or stuck open/shut. i then realize the red power wire going into it was severed completely!!

Hence the cylinder 2 misfiring. Okay now, does this mean I need an entire new injector or can i fix the wiring? its cut basically right where the wire meets the connector to the injector, so its like little to no space to splice and rewire...

if theres no fix then whats the pn for the wiring harness...UGH


the wires is like this ==== =[](inj)

[gectek]

you can actually either do one of 2 things for the bad wire, i would NOT recommend splicing it or fixing it,

1. get a pigtail from GM use that

2 get the entire wiring harness from GM, that way it is all new, not very expensive and no messy wire splices that can go wrong in the future, if you need a good price on one let me know, i can look tomorrow

[Robotix]

Originally Posted by Robotix

Well...I am halfway through and I have two points.....

1. You CANT do this job without a swivel attachment for the socket set...you need this to take off the power steering pump, there is NO other way.

2. After removing the alternator you MUST take off the alternator bracket to get to the last bolt on the rear valve cover gasket there is NO other way...there are FOUR bolts on the bracket one being the bolt that holds the tension arm on.

Everyone of my lim bolts were loose!!!!

The inside of my engine is black as midnight. Will an oil treatment clean this crap out????

Originally Posted by angrysk8r

Neither of these is true. There are other tools you can use besides a swivel attachment to reach those bolts. Also, I was able to remove my rear valve cover without removing the bracket.

OK...let me rephrase then....if you remove the bracket which takes 2 minutes you save your self 10 minutes trying to figure out and failing how to remove that last bolt of the valve cover gasket hidden behind the alternator bracket bolt.

And as far as the bolt for the power steering pump that you have to take the engine mount bolt out for.......WHAT tool do you use then since this is what you clearly state,

"23.) Remove one of the engine mount bolts (As seen in the picture HERE) and then using a "U-JOINT" and by rotating the power steering pulley, you should have a clear shot at all 3 of the bolts that hold the power steering assembly to the engine (As seen in the picture HERE). Now you should just be able to set the power steering assembly aside without disconnecting it.

If there is another tool or way to do this then it would be most helpful in elaborating what it is because other than those two things your instructions where flawless...the only other thing I would recommend is a wifi laptop to check out your pictures.

again job well done thanks for the help!!!!!

[angrysk8r]

Originally Posted by Robotix

OK...let me rephrase then....if you remove the bracket which takes 2 minutes you save your self 10 minutes trying to figure out and failing how to remove that last bolt of the valve cover gasket hidden behind the alternator bracket bolt.

And as far as the bolt for the power steering pump that you have to take the engine mount bolt out for.......WHAT tool do you use then since this is what you clearly state,

If there is another tool or way to do this then it would be most helpful in elaborating what it is because other than those two things your instructions where flawless...the only other thing I would recommend is a wifi laptop to check out your pictures.

again job well doen thanks for the help!!!!!

I personally had little trouble with that rear valve cover bolt so I didn't bother to write up how to remove that bracket. I suppose I got lucky. Although since so many people can't seem to get to it easily, once I replace my head gaskets (which will be soon) I'll include it in the walkthrough and show pictures of where the bolts are on the bracket. Also, for what specific tool you could use instead of a swivel attachment, you can use a low profile ratchet (Or at least one with a small head). That is actually how I put the bolts back in on the power steering pump.

Also, if anyone else has pictures or would like to add to the walkthrough, feel free to tell me and I'll edit the post.

I also plan to add a trouble shoot section to this walkthrough, since inevitably some of us (including me) had some issues after completing the gasket change. But for those who have replied above with issues there are some easy things to check when you put everything back together. I had some major idle issues when I first started my car, and after a good check there were some things that I had overlooked. My problems were: Dirty coil pack connections, a fairly major vacuum leak (at the TB), and an untightened spark plug. Those simple things combined basically made it so that my engine wouldn't run for more than 10 sec at a time, and when it did run, it didn't run or idle smooth at all. A shop might have charged me a small fortune to diagnose and fix these issues, but I was basically able to fix these for free.

[Robotix]

I would suggest that you also look into replacing your serpentine belt if you have more than 50k or notice any type of chaffing or cracking thnis is a very good time to do this. To do this just jack the engine up enough to relive the pressure from the engine mounting block and remove the three remaining bolts and then just pull out the old and put in the new and continue with step #24.

Originally Posted by gectek

you can actually either do one of 2 things for the bad wire, i would NOT recommend splicing it or fixing it,

1. get a pigtail from GM use that

2 get the entire wiring harness from GM, that way it is all new, not very expensive and no messy wire splices that can go wrong in the future, if you need a good price on one let me know, i can look tomorrow

i spliced the wire for now, it works and the SES light is gone..no rough idle.


if you can find me a price for a wiring harness that would be good. or a part number...whichever

[gectek]

well ill do both...tomorrow

[BHermis]

Yes I also recomend changing the serpentine belt while you are doing this. You have to take the power steering off so you have to remove the belt which after being in tension for 50k and then untensioned tends to be loose. Alrighty

[angrysk8r]

Just note that if you're going to be removing/replacing the serpantine belt, you will need to remove the engine bracket and support the engine underneith while doing this (2x4 and a jack works). I did not cover this in the walkthrough but I may address it later.

[polo77]

I stated earlier then I thought my lim was gone. Coolant in oil figured it was lim. Took it to the machanic and then I got a call saying that the it was dry. I was like wtf? So this has me kind of wonder wth is going on. Wuhoo this should be fun to deal with.

gectek; did you find the pn or a good price on that harness?

[gectek]

ok found the number, but the pricing is kind of messed up, so if i found a fault with the pricing it means either 1 of 2 things, i can get it at the advertised price, which is a big discount(only $59), or they tell me no and i get it for my normal price, which is 93.81, you can get it from gm parts direct with shipping for about 90 and some change, but if i can get it at a better price, ill let u know ASAP

the pn is 12570229, thats for the entire harness, i can get the single injector pigtail for about $27, but i didnt get the pn, very busy right now, ill let u know what i find out on pricing tomorrow though...ok

thats alot to spend when just one wire was ruined.

i looked on rockauto and found that they sell just the connector for like $4 and the picture of it shows wiring coming out of it, so im not sure if theres a few inches of wiring coming from it so you can splice it or if you have to wire it yourself...

http://info.rockauto.com/SMP/SK25_FULL.JPG

i have pigtails here that would work fine its just a small cap that twists onto the wire and keeps it in good

[gectek]

no no no no no, do not use the screw together ones, do not use the crimp connectors, only solder, twist the conn and solder it, the use heat shrink tubing and then tape over it. anything else isnt worth doing. the pigtails have about 6 inches of wire on them, and if they have it for that cheap, then get it. hopefully its the right one, just make sure of the wire color and such when u splice it in