Thread: is my LIM gasket starting to go?

that puff of smoke could be moisture in the exhaust burning off.

or maybe the lim gaskets. if they are plastic, they should be changed either way.

depending on the color of the smoke, it could be a lot of things.

Take a file or sand paper to that corner. If it starts showing Aluminum then its the new metal gasket, if plastic sheds of then you need to replace it anyways.

Personally I think its the old style and you need to replace them, the elbows, and other various gaskets, flush coolant and refill with new.

Then see if its still smoking. Just make sure you change the oil several times to get all the extra coolant out, or you'll need a new motor.

do what he said,^^^^, but degrease it before you work on it, and flush the cooling system too before it gets torn down.

and that looks to be a plastic gasket.


i did my lim gaskets, for under 100 bucks in parts,(gaskets to fluids, everything) good time to change the valve cover gaskets as well.

If you want to do it, give this a look over. Has the parts needed (Posts 13, 16, & 22). How-to written out (Post # 13)
And a video of what to do and how to do it in 33 minutes.

http://www.grandprixforums.net/video...utes-3112.html

truth is once you got the wires off and the fuel rail, and throttle cables, theres not much left. its rather easy to get done in a few hours.

theres a few guys who have done them more then once, say they can have it done in 2 hrs.

if you got time to lay it up for a weekend, its a good time to paint some parts up.

Took a friend and I, 7ish hours, with hand tools, in the rain, and I painted the blower.

Not hard, and again, see the link for the video. Its step by step, just not minute by minute (unless you have a time machine, in which case its irrelevant).

7 hrs, ouch.

did mine in 3 hr first time out, ( alone) only reason it took that long was i had to find injector O rings, and had no ride to the store. i swear, i spent as much time cleaning the old sc gasket off as it took to get apart in the first place.

i had just done my elbows Pryor to the lim job, and i have a 98 so i left the alt bracket and just changed the top elbow when the lim was off.

so nothing got painted.

and back together running.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

7 hrs, ouch.

did mine in 3 hr first time out, ( alone) only reason it took that long was i had to find injector O rings, and had no ride to the store. i swear, i spent as much time cleaning the old sc gasket off as it took to get apart in the first place.

i had just done my elbows Pryor to the lim job, and i have a 98 so i left the alt bracket and just changed the top elbow when the lim was off.

so nothing got painted.

That was including time to spray paint the blower and let it dry infront of the heater. No pics of it once it was back together as it was dark and I didn't think about it. Typical Silver blower with brass lines, use your imagination.
Intake Gaskets 75k Photos by tlsheff | Photobucket

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

theres a few guys who have done them more then once, say they can have it done in 2 hrs.

I did my last one with swapping lifters and pushrods in about 2 hours.

i wish mine was not so abused by its last 8 owners lol as you can see inside mine is cooked looking with burnt oil. the good news is the rockers have cleaned up a lot just from regular oil changes. so im hopping the valley is also cleaning up as i own it.