Help me get out the gunk!

[GPX]

I'm doing my first LIM gasket change. What's the best way to clear the gunk out of the crankcase?

[94GrandPrix]

You talking about any coolant-oil sludge?

 

When I did mine on my '96 Ciera, I just ran cheap oil and a cheap filter for about 100 miles and changed it out with my preferred brand oil. Just be sure to drain out that gunk BEFORE you put the cheap oil in. Flush your cooling system too.

 

TIPS:

 

As for cleaning mating surfaces, if you think you got it clean, clean it again... and again if necessary. Plug the ports in the cylinder heads with shop towels and carefully remove all traces of old gasket materials, old silicone, etc. Every mating surface has to be cleaned, or your new gaskets may develop a leak. Scrape off your mating surfaces with a plastic scraper (or if your very careful, a metal one) and wipe them down with a rag with brake parts cleaner on it. Repeat if needed. Make sure that when your done that you have no oil or anything what so ever on your mating surfaces.

 

If you haven't already, purchase the Fel-Pro intake manifold gaskets. If installed correctly, you will never have a repeat problem.

 

Do you have the 3100 v6? If so, replace the fuel injector o-rings while you are in there. (I'm not sure if that applies to the LQ1 or not) Your o-rings will be hard and brittle, and if you reuse them they will leak. There will be two o-rings per injector, one on the top and one on the bottom of the injector. When re-installing the fuel rail, I used a little vaseline on the bottom injector o-rings to help them slide right down into the lower intake manifold. Didn't give me a single problem.

 

Also, replace the oil pump drive o-ring too. If it's not leaking already, it will be soon.

 

Good luck!

[RobertISaar]

you can only clean so much before you have oil passages left that are filled the oil/coolant mixture... if you wanted to clear those out, you could prime the oil system in a couple of different ways including spinning the distributor dummy shaft with I think an 8mm socket connected to an air ratchet or a decent electric/air drill. with the plug out, the system won't build pressure, but it will allow you to move oil around if you have any sitting in the pan. to build pressure, you would need to either modify another plug or gut a distributor. otherwise, the lifter galleries don't receive any oil flow/pressure, but at least the lower stuff should get some oil on/in them.

 

speaking of lifters..... you may want to consider disassembling and cleaning them, if not outright replacing them. mine were packed with the oil/coolant mix and partially seized due to it, took some considerable effort to get them apart.

[Nas Escobar]

Old trick I use... Get a quart of ATF, mix it with fresh cheap oil subtracting one quart for the ATF and run it for 10 minutes. It should clean your oil passages.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

[pitzel]

Obviously wipe as much away as you can, but don't worry too much about what remains. I had gunk from the LIM coolant, did a short flush interval after doing the LIM, ended up pulling the oil pan roughly 40k miles later, and there was nothing of significance in either the oil pan or on the crank.

 

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3719106/Re:_40k_mile_OCI_pics

 

See pictures.

[GPX]

Thanks guys. I did get the Fel-Pro set. And now that the oil is drained (much extra, LOL) I realize most of the gunk was up in the rockers, which I cleaned out as best I could and pre-oiled them after cleaning and re-torquing. This is my fourth W-body--they have all needed LIM gaskets at some point. This is my first attempt at doing this myself. Because of a week delay in getting it back together I was very thankful to have another identical car sitting next to it in the driveway. I muffed the installation of the thermostat gasket not realizing it fits around the thermostat. So I had to take most of the top stuff off again, but I'm getting good at it now! One thing I did was to snap a picture each time I disconnected electrical connectors. That way I could scroll thru them backwards to help me with the order and to confidently reconnect them. I'm still curious about the blue/red connector that dangles back by the alternator on both of my 3100 cars.

[RobertISaar]

blue/red near the alternator sounds like the CCP solenoid.... follow the rubber line coming up near the brake lines, see if you forgot to plug it in. it's near the MAP sensor.

[cutlassdude96]

it could also connect to t he p/s pump id car was equip with the optional variable effort steering RPO NV7