Thread: Leaking gaskets need diagnosed (with pics)

First is the valve cover, correct.

The second just looks like a very very minor seep from the trans case gasket. I bet if you cleaned that one, it wouldnt look like that for another year or even a few years. It just looks worse because the dirt has stuck to it and built up.

First I could see being valve cover or lower intake gaskets. The second, we can see seepage coming in from out of the view. This could be the LIM gasket, could be the turn around on the end of the LIM, and it could be a trans casing seepage.

Trans seepage is not very likely in this area, although a little fluid may have flung up and found the breather hole of the trans. I'm doubtful that it's trans. And if you are paranoid and go check your trans fluid..I bet it's not 100% filled..but that's normal.

Ok thanks guys. Im gonna go ahead and replace my LIM gasket, SC gasket, and valve covers. I watched a video on YouTube about the LIM replacement but Im still not too confident. Is it a tough job for a rookie? I feel like if I can just get the SC then it would be easy from there.

Doing this job is turning bolts counter clockwise to loosen, cleaning parts and tightening bolts by turning them clockwise. If you look at one bolt at a time instead of the big picture, it'll look and be easy.

If you let yourself get overwhelmed by the large picture, pop back on the forum. There's nothing we can't help with.

The only pulley you would have to remove is one on the SC tensioner to be able to remove the black bracket that overhangs the valve cover.

nope. only if you are removing the fuel rail. valve cover removal they stay put.

oh, and de grease your engine before working on it, the day before. working on a clean engine is much nicer.

no, clean it first, then do the lim job. every plug you see will need to come off to do the lim, off the TB and lim, and injectors, the map and evap, the boost by pass solenoid. the alt, take it off too. and the vac lines.

yes unplug the injectors, un bolt the 4 corners of the rail and then pull up on the rail, the injectors will pull from the heads.

you can flip the rail to the side, or take the lines off the rail with a quick disconnect tool.

Whoa.. lemme lay this out a bit more straight forward. The vid has a lot extra in it.

You want to
Disconnect negative battery cable (move it away from battery where it connects so it can't reconnect itself gently)
Remove alt
Disconnect three sensors on throttle body
Disconnect electrical on front of super charger by throttle body (that's called the boost soleniod)
Disconnect the EGR electrical by the back side of the TB
Disconnect the 6 fuel injectors by pushing that wire toward the injector and pulling up... that releases it's clip w/o removing the wire clip itself
Disconnect the 1 connector on the MAP sensor (behind supercharger by bracket from alt to SC)
Drain coolant
Lift fuel rail out of way (4 10mm nuts at corners of rail, plus 1 13mm bolt on top of sc) If you don't have a fuel line tool..gently lay the rail out of the way.
Remove supercharger (yes the EGR shield also needs to come off to get the SC unbolted)
Good time to unbolt and clean the throttle body
Remove 3 bolts holding the alt bracket to the engine (this is the bracket it sits on) You may need to wiggle/gently coax to get the coolant elbows to release)
Remove LIM (12 3/8" bolts, I mention that because when you go to torque them..10mm socket will spin)
Clean and let's reassemble

LIM bolts get a little loctite or liquid teflon with ptfe to seal them, torque to 15ft lbs on metal LIM gaskets, 13 ft lbs on plastic gaskets
SC bolts are 17ft lbs.
Everything else is...reasonable. Don't try to kill all the bolts. Some are smaller and can't take it.

Ooops..forgot to tell you to take the evap off. That's evap. Map is down below that and a smidge more to the driverside. It's also bolted to the SC. EGR is that big thing with connector on top right behind the TB towards the firewall.

those are pinch and pull ends on the evap solenoid iirc.