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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.

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