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Vehicle: 1997 Buick Century Custom (3.1L engine)
Mileage: 118183 miles (190197 km) at time of maintenance
Description:

Somewhere along the line, this car developed an oil leak between the lower intake manifold and the exhaust manifold. I was losing about 1 quart of oil every 1200-1300 miles (1900-2100 km), which was manageable, but I wanted to see whether repair was feasible since the car needed a transmission overhaul. Additionally, there was a slight leak in the #4 fuel injector (towards the front of the car, in the middle) that I wanted to fix while I had things apart. Since I usually keep my camera handy, I decided to take a few pictures along the way (though I would've liked to have taken more.)

After tearing things down, it appeared that the silicone sealant used on the part of the manifolds that runs parallel to the ground had blown. After installing new gaskets and sealant, almost no oil has been lost (knock on wood.)

In the aftermath of the repairs, I ended up with a couple of small coolant leaks (due to clamps that no longer held well enough after being disturbed), and the fuel leak became much worse. Long story short, I replaced the clamps on the cooling lines, a couple of O-rings on the fuel injectors that didn't enjoy their insertion the first time around, and a cracked fuel injector: so far, all the leaks seem to be fixed (again, knock on wood.)

Unfortunately, the pictures both start and stop rather abruptly. Since this car is my daily driver, and the garage I was using wasn't mine, finishing the project was more important than the pictures (alas....) Still, something is better than nothing, so here are the better of the pictures I managed to take while doing the repairs.

 Name                              Last modified      Size  Description
 Parent Directory                                       -   
 01-valve_springs.jpg              2007-05-31 01:23  268K  Disassembly - valve springs and rocker arms
 02-lower_intake_manifold.jpg      2007-05-31 01:23  225K  Disassembly - Gas + oil + dirt = dirty-ass lower intake manifold
 03-pushrods.jpg                   2007-05-31 01:23  248K  Disassembly - Pushrods and things
 04-peekaboo_camshift.jpg          2007-05-31 01:23  249K  Disassembly - A peek at the camshaft
 05-new_gaskets.jpg                2007-05-31 01:24  310K  Reassembly - New gaskets look pretty
 06-lower_intake_manifold.jpg      2007-05-31 01:24  232K  Reassembly - Very slightly cleaner lower intake manifold
 07-lower_intake_manifold_side.jpg 2007-05-31 01:24  239K  Reassembly - Very slightly cleaner lower intake manifold - profile
 08-valve_covers.jpg               2007-05-31 01:24  217K  Reassembly - Return of the valve covers and fuel rails