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Valve cover gasket replacement

I'm not the biggest DIY guy but I wish I had more confidence and knowledge.

My question is:

Where should you have the transmission with either of the tilt engine techniques?
 


TooMch said:
I'm not the biggest DIY guy but I wish I had more confidence and knowledge.

My question is:

Where should you have the transmission with either of the tilt engine techniques?
Click to expand...

According to the makers of the engine tilter (Lisle) neutral. But if doing it by the other method, it can't be in neutral.
 
I have seen those tilter tools before, I wish I had grabbed it when I seen cause I cannot find them around here. But I have never put my car in neutral to rock the motor forward. I just pull on the blower snout and lock it in place with the dogbone.

That said, I dont thing that way would pull it forward enough to give sufficient access or easy access to the rear valve cover. I could be wrong. When I replaced my VC gaskets I was doing a LIM gasket change also so it was kinda a mute issue.
 
when you have the engine rocked forawrd, there should be plenty of room...as there is about 4-5inchs away from the firewall....
 
UR LOSN said:
when you have the engine rocked forawrd, there should be plenty of room...as there is about 4-5inchs away from the firewall....
Click to expand...


when i changed the plugs in my regal, i didnt get that much play out of tilting the engine forward...

here's my solution, not using a tilting tool (assuming inside a garage, hopefully with wall/immoveable object close by)

-- remove dog bones.

use ratchet strap from wall to engine lift bracket... ratchet snug, will pull engine forward -- dont pull too much, dont want to break anything (if you havent removed the air filter box yet, do that first)
 


did mine a week ago its not that bad just make sure you dont over tighten the bolts it'd be a big waist of time.
 
Toasty said:
-- remove dog bones.

use ratchet strap from wall to engine lift bracket... ratchet snug, will pull engine forward -- dont pull too much, dont want to break anything (if you havent removed the air filter box yet, do that first)
Click to expand...

Im going to have to go tomorrow and find me some small ratchet straps and try that out, that sounds like a perfect solution.
 
Yeah you just need about 3 feet of strap and the hook end
Put the rachet back on the strap...
Remove dog bones hook onto the rad suport Big hole and slide
Bolt back into engine mount with hook
shift car into " N " and pull engine forward Put car E brake on...
fast and easy...
 
J_Ferguson said:
Yeah you just need about 3 feet of strap and the hook end
Put the rachet back on the strap...
Remove dog bones hook onto the rad suport Big hole and slide
Bolt back into engine mount with hook
shift car into " N " and pull engine forward Put car E brake on...
fast and easy...
Click to expand...


hmmm hadnt thought about using the rad support.


would have saved me from having to duck under the ratchet strap to the wall!
 
SyntheticShield said:
Im going to have to go tomorrow and find me some small ratchet straps and try that out, that sounds like a perfect solution.
Click to expand...

i think i used a 1" one. I have some heavy shelf brackets in the front of the garage bolted to the wall with self-tapping lag bolts (These are AWESOME, but you gotta have a good drill driver to use em) and i just hooked the ratchet strap hook to the angled part of the shelf bracket
 


You know if you just take that stupid engine lift bracket out of the damn engine bay there's no need to rock your motor foreward to do plugs. It creates a lot of room back there. I mean A LOT ! it was one of the things that stayed off when I did PEM's on my first car. Since I would pull the heads before removing the engine I felt that it's not needed anyway, and is less weight to have that piece of crap in my engine bay. It's a win all the way around.

GET RID OF THAT DAMN BRACKET AND MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER.
 
Here is the engine tilter I have. LISLE 48260 - TRANSVERSE MOUNT ENGINE TILTER GM FWD It just goes in place of one of the dog bones and safely allows you to tilt the engine to the degree you need.
PRJ used the method of pushing the car forward and setting the parking when he did the TOG intercooler install. I prefer the tilter method as you have control over how far the engine tilts.
 
Toasty said:
i think i used a 1" one. I have some heavy shelf brackets in the front of the garage bolted to the wall with self-tapping lag bolts (These are AWESOME, but you gotta have a good drill driver to use em) and i just hooked the ratchet strap hook to the angled part of the shelf bracket
Click to expand...

Thanks for that bit of info.
 
Toasty, perhaps we do need a DIY section or maybe we need to have a running list of such thing in the HowTo section since it would more likely be used with the stuff there.

Meemporer has an idea I havent tried. Would that give you more room to for such things like changing spark plugs?

Lee, thanks for posting the link. I may yet have to get one of those for other vehicles that I work on that I may not be able to use some of the other tips on.
 


I use a ratchet strap from the headlight bracket to the dog bone on the motor side and ratchet it tight enough to give me plenty of room. I have also used the altenator stud. just something sturdy that wont bend of break. The bolts holding on the coilpack holder/pulley base/dog bone mount thing uses 15 mm nuts. I have removed the rear vc several times without ever taking the altenator bracket off. just remove bolts and it should be lose enough you can rotate the vc's off.
 
It aint much, I want to say it was on the order of 12 - 15in/lbs or something like that. I looked at our torque spec in the How To section and it didnt have the valve cover bolts listed. But I know it wasnt much at all.
 
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