[earossi]

I am having a tough time re-sealing the cover on the lower balance shaft housing. Attempting to do the re-seal job with the motor installed in the car makes it difficult to move the cover plate into place without disturbing the Loctite 574 sealant that has to be spread onto the cover plate before slipping it in place (there is no gasket).



Do I need to remove the exhaust header and right side motor mount bracket (a lot of work) to do this job, or is there some sort of "trick" to getting the cover into place without harming the sealant. It would be a shame to put the car back together only to find that the lower balance shaft has an oil leak.



I have attempted to carefully install the cover plate five times now.....and none with success. Any help out there?

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[Cloud9...68]

This probably won't be much help, because I went ahead and pulled my engine, making this job sickeningly easy, but did you remove the cross-member? I seem to remember it was right in the way of the lower balance shaft cover. I know removing this thing is a pain, and an alignment is required afterwards, making it expensive as well as painful, but if you haven't removed it, doing so might open up the additional space you need.

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[earossi]

Cloud, No, I did not remove the cross member yet. Thats a pretty big job if I understand what is required. It is in the way, but I can maneuver around it. The biggest issue is that the engine mount support bracket is in the way big time. To remove that bracket means pulling the engine mount, which looks like a lot of work. Perhaps I could just lower the crossmember on its attach bolts just enough to detach the motor mount from the cross member and then pull the bracket? I would have to support the engine from above to do this.



Also, to get at all the bolts on the topside of the engine mount bracket, do I have to pull the heat shield that lies on top side of the motor mount bracket?

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[Cloud9...68]

I'm afraid you're in a tough spot, and unless someone who has actually done this has a better idea, it sounds to me like you may have to bite the bullet and treat this job as an abbreviated version of an engine mount replacement. Maybe something like this is what you'd need to do:





Remove front wheels

Remove underbody cover using 10mm socket

Undo sway bar nuts holding it to Control Arm using 17mm socket

Undo 13mm nuts and bolts holding the inner sway bar bushing brackets

Lower brackets by removing 13mm bolts to body and remove sway bar

Remove 19mm nuts and bolts holding the control arm to the crossmember

Remove 17mm bolts holding the Caster Blocks to the body and Control Arms and move Control Arms out of the way.

Loosen 19mm bolts holding crossmember to the body. Do not undo them completely.

Remove nut holding the engine mount to crossmember using 17mm socket

Remove any heat shields covering engine mounts using 10mm socket

Remove bolts holding the engine mounts to motor mounts using stubby 13mm wrench

Place jack with suitable padding/wooden block under oil pan and lift engine slightly.

Pry the right motor mount off



Then, you'd be able to remove the motor mount support bracket, and have an unobstructed path to the lower balance shaft cover. At least you don't have to support the engine from the top, in case you don't happen to have a hoist stuck away in your hall closet.



I know, this really sucks. If it comes to this (and I really hope someone on the forum has a better idea), you might want to think of other things to do while you have this much stuff off, like very carefully checking the steering rack for leaks, and, if you're very brave, re-sealing it, or replacing it with a rebuilt one. Also, if you oil pan gasket is leaking, this would be a good time to replace it. And if your engine has over 100K miles, new rod bearings might be a good idea as well (they're very cheap at less than $70). However, doing these two ites does mean you'd have to support the engine from the top.



I assume this car isn't you daily driver, so at least you can take your time with what is turning out to be a huge job. Best of luck.

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[earossi]

Thanks Cloud,



Actually I do have one of the hoists that sit on top of the fender mounts, so supporting the engine from the top is what I will do. I tend to agree with you in that I may have to drop the cross member. Oh well, its just work.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yeah, and at least none of this stuff is particularly critical - just a bunch of removal and replacement. Time-consuming, but without a big risk of messing something up.

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[earossi]

This is an update of the job. I finally have everything apart, and it is one hell of a lot of work to reseal the lower balance shaft covers. I now understand why we find that the rear plug seals on most of our cars are just jury rigged with RTV when a leak occurs.



My advice is to put off this job as long as possible and only go into it where there is a lot of other work that needs to be done, since you end up dismantling a lot of hardware just to get to the cover plates.



As a few of you know (Cloud for sure), I have been wrestling with this job for about a month (an hour here and an hour there). I was attempting to shortcut the work to get the cover sealed up. Finally I threw in the towel and decided to just "do it". So, to make the area accessible so that I can be assured that I have gotten a good seal (you don't have gaskets.....just Loctite 574 sealant), you end up taking out the motor mount bracket on the right side, the exhaust headers, and all the heat shields that surround the area. The job entails jacking the motor up enough to take the weight off of the motor mount support bracket so that you can unbolt it. And, of course, you have to remove and replace the lower balance shaft front bearing housing which means removing all the front belts and belt guards. A ton of little stuff.....none of it very hard....but, it all takes time. If you are planning this as a weekend job.....you'll probably need at least two weekends and a lot of beer to do the job.



At any rate, now that I am stripped down, I'll reseal the balance shaft cover plate (forever!!) and then reinstall the many parts that came off to get there. I don't know what a professional would charge to do this job.....but, in the hands of a pro, I would bet it is still the better part of 10-15 hours worth of work.....if they know what they are doing!! And, as these cars age....there are less and less mechanics who have touched this type of machine.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, like I said, it's probably not an exaggeration to say that to fix all the seals on this car that will (not might, but will) leak by 100K miles, and probably before, the tab would come close to $10K. And since I've pulled the engine out of my car, I've found seals that I didn't even know existed (they're all leaking, of course). Fortunately, only a few of my leaks were bad enough to drip anything on the garage floor, but my engine was a filthy, grimy mess side to side, top to bottom. There's no way I could have fixed all of these wit the engine in the car, let alone get to all the nooks and crannies on the engine to clean it up.

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[Lear35A]

I'm with Cloud. The ONLY upside of the problems that forced me to pull my engine out and apart is getting everything clean and resealed.

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[earossi]

Well, finally bit the bullet and pulled just about everything off the right side of the motor. That included the exhaust headers and the motor mount support bracket. And, I also had to pull the heat sheilds and disconnect the coolant piping above the headers. The good news is that once all that stuff was out of the way, it took all of about 20 minutes to install the lower balance shaft cover, which I had been fighting for the better part of a month. This is just not an area of the motor that is meant to be taken apart while in the car. When I look at the cover and the balance shaft housing and note that there are five areas related to this one balance shaft alone that can be the source of a leak, I am just not impressed with the design.



I have also "lowered" the cross member after disconnecting the swaybar and both A-arms. I'll replace the motor mounts at this time since they had shown signs of being at end of life.



So, it's all apart and now I have to bolt it all back up. In retrospect, none of the work is very difficult....there just seems to be a huge number of pieces that had to be removed to get this seal job done.



Thanks to Cloud for all the suggestions. I could have not done it without his council.

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[mbardeen]

I'm in the process of tracking down a persistent oil leak that looks like it's coming from the back of the front lower balance shaft bearing housing (part 19 in the following: http://www.autoatlan...&section=103-15). It seems like I've got all the bolts, but it's not coming easily free. I have not removed the seal from the front of the shaft -- do I need to do that first?

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[Bulti]

If I remember correctly there are 4 bolts(or nuts?) holding the bearing case in place, 3 in the front and 1 in the back (the latter is easy to overlook).



The seal can be removed afterwards, but this way it may be harder to get the housing off, I removed it when everything was still bolted on. You have to replace the seal anyway.



Be adviced: there is a 1 mm difference in diameter between the upper and lower front balance shaft seal! Do not interchange them or you will have to start all over again!



Also: make sure you don't forget to replace the clear plastic seals: (really thin and fragile!!!) nr 5 on the exploded view.

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[snova]

So I'm in the process of doing this. I removed the subframe to reseal the oil pan/sump, power steering rack to replace the hoses, replaced motor mounts,  removed headers and associated studs, all exhaust heat shields. Now I am starring at the lower balance shaft cover and the oil thermostat cover above it.  Both with liquid oil on the covers. I already pulled the oil cooler lines because those seem to be leaking where metal crimps unto the hose.    Can I just remove the lower balance shaft cover and oil thermostat covers to reseal them, or do I need to go further and remove the balance shaft belt, timing belts, etc from the front of the engine?  Can I get away with just unbolting the lower balance shaft cover and oil thermostat housing form the right side of the engine?  I dont see any leaks front the back of the balance shaft plug (i.e. o-ring seal). 

 

Also on the fence about just pulling the engine.  I have never done this before, but the car is on a 4 post lift.  I've been reading the dropping the engine form the bottom if you have a lift is easer then pulling it out of the top.   Should I just go to the effort to just dropping the engine out from the bottom or the top.  I am not opposed to buying either a hoist or  transmission jack to lower it down from the chassis while it is up on the lift. Looking for recommended equipment and approach to remove the engine. It's currently being suspended with the subframe via support brace between the fender using a single eyelet that is found slight forward of the subframe and on the left side of the engine.   Car has 118k mi on it.  Oil was dripping out of the header seals. I seem to have oil sludge coming out the back of the right side rear cam area (pressure relief perhaps).    Exhaust ports in engine seem to have a good amount of built up hardened oil sludge on them (maybe 1/32" to 1/16" thick ?)Wondering if I should just rebuild the head/piston and new rings.   Already bought new header studs, exhaust fasteners, header exhaust seals.   This stuff alone wasn't cheap and if I need to do heads/piston/rings later, I assume I'll need to buy all this stuff again as it's really not designed to be reused.   Never rebuilt an engine before (i.e. send out heads for machining, replace rings, etc).  Not a daily driver but I only have 1 lift. Which I use for regular maintenance of several other cars.  Would be good if there was a way for me to pull the engine, and roll the chassis off the 4 post lift so I can use it for general maintenance of other cars.  I guess I'd need to reinstall steering rack/sub frame without engine to do that? thoughts? recommendations? equipment ?  I have time, as long as I can get the car off the lift and use the lift for other things while I work on the engine in a different area. 

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[unknown4u]

I'm sorry to tell but you have to remove the front of the engine to acces the lower balanceshafthousing. Please notice how the gear is fitted, it is a common mistake that many have made in the past. Also check the oilpickuptube because they can have a crack. Mine was already gone when I opened the oilpan.

The other advice is:

Take your time for serious cleaning and visual inspection.

Better check twice than have the complete job overagain.
For the thermostathousing you will need to drain the coolingsystem.



Inside is a valve that need a very good alignement. Read the workshopmanual for that.
Oil from the back of the top the engine, is mostly from the valvecover. Do not reuse the rubber gaskets etc. Replace the rubber from the studs as well because the cover will not tighten with the old ones enough.
With a lot of carbon in the exhaustports. Check the color of it. If it is sluggy. I do not know the word for it, better sent the head to a machineshop for new stems etc.
You can use a motormount to acces the underside from the engine after you have disambeld the top/head etc for further inspection.

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[snova]

thank you.  sounds like it makes sense just to remove the engine and go through it piece by piece 

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[unknown4u]

You can remove the engine for a complete rebuild, but it is what the budget is....

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[Waylander]

You will need an OPRV alignment tool some loctite 573, and a lot of patience, I would also replace the balance shaft shells while your there



You will need a manual if you dont have one

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[unknown4u]

Snova has already finished the job? We are almost a month ahead. :-)

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[Waylander]

Oh well, never mind, I will go back to being off sick

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