How to Replace Intake Manifold Gasket 1999-2003 Pontiac Grand Am PART 1
Created on: 2013-09-27
Check out this video from 1A Auto to learn how to replace the intake manifold gasket on your 99-05 Pontiac Grand Am. Part 1 of a multipart series.
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step 1 :Removing the Spark Plug Wires
- Unplug each of the spark plug wires
- Remove the spark plug wires from their clip
- Remove the two vacuum hoses
- Remove the 10mm bolts from the throttle body bracket
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step 2 :Removing the Air Intake
- Loosen the air intake hose clamps with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the air intake hose from the intake manifold
- Disconnect the vacuum hose on the air intake hose
- Disconnect the mass air flow sensor harness
- Remove the air intake hose from the air box
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step 3 :Disconnecting the Intake Manifold
- Remove the two 13mm bolts from the throttle body
- Remove the 10mm bolts from the top of the coil pack
- Remove the 13mm bolts from the bottom of the coil pack
- Slide back the hose clamp with a pair of pliers on the back of the intake manifold
- Disconnect the hose
- Remove the two 7mm bolts from the back of the MAP sensor
- Disconnect the MAP sensor harness
- Remove the sensor
- Remove the hose with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the two 10mm bolts from the EGR Valve
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step 4 :Removing the Upper Intake Plenum
- Remove the 10mm bolts from the upper intake plenum
- Remove the 13mm nut from the upper intake plenum
- Remove the 10mm bolt below the right side of the intake manifold
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step 5 :Disconnecting the Coolant Hoses
- Remove the cap on the radiator overflow bottle
- Slide a drip pan underneath the drain plug
- Remove the drain plug and drain the coolant
- Pry off the coolant hoses
- Remove the hoses from the top of the manifold
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step 6 :Disconnecting the Fuel Injectors
- Lift the upper intake plenum up and aside
- Remove the intake gaskets
- Disconnect the harness on the right side of the manifold
- Remove the two 10mm bolts from the fuel injectors
- Vacuum out the top of the engine
- Carefully pry the fuel injectors up and out with a pry bar
- Lift the fuel injectors out
- Remove the 13mm nut on the lower part of the intake manifold
- Disconnect each fuel injector harness
- Lift and set the fuel injector aside
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step 7 :Disconnecting the Coolant Hoses
- Remove the two 8mm nuts from the front of the engine
- Loosen the coolant hose clamp
- Remove the coolant hose and set it up over the dipstick
- Remove the clip from the coolant hoses and remove them from either end of the coolant line
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step 8 :Removing the Alternator
- Insert a 3/8 ratchet inside the tensioner
- Push back and pull the serpentine belt free
- Disconnect the negative battery cable with an 8mm wrench
- Remove the three 15mm bolts on the alternator
- Lift the alternator up and out
- Disconnect the harness
- Remove the rubber boot and remove the 13mm bolt beneath the boot
- Lift the alternator up and out
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step 9 :Removing the Tensioner Assembly
- Remove a 15mm bolt beneath the idler pulley
- Remove the 15mm bolt on the side of the intake manifold beneath where the alternator was
- Remove the 16mm bolt from the tensioner
- Remove the tensioner assembly
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step 10 :Removing the Valve Covers
- Remove the four 8mm bolts on the front of the engine
- Remove the four 8mm bolts on the back of the engine
- Remove the front and back valve covers and their gaskets
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step 11 :Removing the Lower Intake Manifold
- Remove the three 13mm bolts behind the steering pulley
- Remove one of the four 18mm bolts beneath the steering pulley to access the last bolt
- Remove the last 13mm bolt
- Pull the power steering pulley aside
- Remove the two 10mm bolts on either side of the lower intake manifold
- Remove the four 10mm bolt on the top of the lower intake manifold
- Pry the hose off the right end of the intake manifold
- Have an assistant hold the fuel injection rail
- Pull the lower intake manifold out
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step 12 :Removing the Intake Manifold Gasket
- Remove the 10mm bolts on the rockers and remove the push rod
- Slide the intake manifold gasket up and out
- Repeat the process for the other side
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step 13 :Continuing the Repair
- This is Part 1 of a two part video
- Please consult Part 2 for further instructions
- Perform the steps outlined in Part 2
Tools needed
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Razor Blade / Gasket Scraper
13mm Socket
Funnel
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Putty Knife
15mm Socket
16mm Socket
18mm Socket
3/8 Inch Drive Ratchet
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Phillips Head Screwdriver
7mm Socket
RTV
10mm Socket
Drain Pan
Wire Brush
Swivel
Flashlight
Assistant
Needle nose pliers
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
This is part one of a three part video, and we're going to show you how to replace the lower intake manifold gaskets on this '99 Pontiac Grand Am. It has a 3.4-liter V6. This procedure is the same for a lot of GM vehicles with this 3.4-liter V6. Here's the tools list: you can see it's a wide variety of different tools to get different jobs done, but nothing is really any kind of specialty tool. You need a torque wrench and a swivel socket to get to some of the different bolts.
I'm going to start out by jumping ahead here a little bit. Here in this picture, you can see up at the top a finger pointing to the old gasket, and it's pointing to this area of the gasket where it failed. You can see the orange of the gasket has been compromised, and that's where it's allowing coolant to get through and actually seep down into the engine oil.
Basically, what the symptom is you're losing coolant but you don't know where you're losing it to, and then when you check the oil, your oil will look a little more light brown and foamy and that's because the coolant is mixing in with your oil. These are your spark plug wires. You just want to go ahead and remove all of those. Just unplug each of them. We'll fast-forward as he does this.
Now, you just want to disconnect those spark plug wires. There's a clip up there, you just want to pull that off, and then you just want to remove that hose from the top and that hose as well. On this clip right here, you'll see there's a 10mm bolt, just go ahead and remove that. Now what you want to do is loosen up the clamp on the air intake hose, so using a flat blade screwdriver just loosen up the bolts on those two clamps. With those loosened up, you can pull the hose off. You're just going to want to pull that back and away, and then disconnect the hose connected to the top of that. The harness on the side, and pull it free and away.
Now, as you can see right here, there's two 13mm bolts one at the top corner and one diagonally across from it. You just want to go ahead and remove those. Next, what you want to do is remove the bolts that secure the coil pack. There's actually different size bolts. The top two are 10mm and the bottom two on the back there are 13mm. You just want to go ahead and remove those.
Now, using a pair of pliers, you just want to grip that clip and slide it back on the hose. Then you just want to use a flat blade screwdriver to pry that hose off. Now there are two 7mm bolts. They're coming in from the side or from the back into that sensor, so remove those. Now with those bolts removed, you can just disconnect the harness on the bottom and pull that up and out. Then using a flat blade screwdriver, just pry that hose off.
Now, on either side of the EGR, you can see that there's two 10mm bolts. You just want to go ahead and remove those. Now, what you want to do is remove this upper intake plenum, and what you're going to need is a 10mm socket to remove the 10mm bolts, and then there's one 13mm nut right there. You just want to go ahead and remove all of those. Now, you just want to remove this 10mm bolt right here.
Now, you just want to remove the cap on your radiator overflow bottle, and then you want to take a drip pan and slide it underneath the engine right underneath these hoses right here. You just want to take some pliers, push those clamps, slide them back on the hose, and then we're going to take a flat blade screwdriver, and we're just going to pry that hose back and off. It's important to disconnect these hoses. You're going to see a lot of coolant comes out, that's why the drip pan's under there. We actually leave the screwdriver in there to help drain all of this coolant. However, there is an easier way to drain this coolant. In our case, this is how we had to do it. You can do it this way, but what you should do to drain your coolant quicker as you can see there's actually a bolt right there, and you just want to loosen that up and drain the coolant that way. Ours is actually broken so we didn't have a choice.
Once the coolant's pretty much drained out, you still want to make sure those hoses are pried off. Then you can just pull that hose free and that hose free. The next thing you want to do is just lift this up, and we can just set that aside. Then you want to just remove these gaskets. Our new kit comes with new ones, so we won't be needing those. You just want to disconnect this connector. Right here, you can see that there's two 10mm bolts. You want to go ahead and remove those. Now, what you want to do is you want to just vacuum out that top of the engine there, get all of the dirt and stuff that builds up in there.
Now, what you want to do is using a pry bar just pry up carefully, and you just want to pry the fuel injectors up and out. Once you've pried them enough you should be able to just lift them out. You can see right here there's a 13mm nut, and you want to just go ahead and remove that.
Now back to the fuel injectors. You want to just disconnect, there's a harness connecting each one, you want to just press on the tab and pull those free. A tab right there. We'll fast-forward as he does the others. Now this should just lift up. You should be able to set it aside. Now, at the front of the engine, you can see that's an 8mm bolt and an 8mm nut, you want to go ahead and remove those. Now, you just want to use a flat blade screwdriver to loosen up this clamp on the hose here. Once that's loosened, make sure you have a drip pan underneath there, and you just want to pull up and the coolant, there will be some coolant coming out.
Now, what you want to do is just pull the hose outward to free it, and then you just want to set that up over on the other side of the dipstick. Now, using pliers, you just want to push the two parts of the clip together and slide it back. Then, you want to do that again, there's a similar clip right down here, you want to do the same thing. Just push the two parts of the clip together and slide the ring back.
Now, you can detach both of those. You may need a screwdriver to help pry them apart. Now, on the other side of the engine, down here is your tensioner. You want to stick a 3/8 inch ratchet just the ratchet itself and you want to stick that down inside the tensioner. Then we use a piece of pipe here for extra leverage. You just want to push that back and you can pull the serpentine belt free.
Before we start working on the alternator, you want to just disconnect your negative battery cable, here. Now, on the alternator, there are two 15mm bolts: one there and then one right back there. There's actually this nut right here, you also want to remove, also 15mm. Now, with those bolts and that nut removed, you can lift the alternator up and out. Back here, there's a harness. You want to disconnect that clip, and then pull this rubber boot off, and you'll see there's actually a bolt in there. You want to go ahead and just remove that, it's 13mm. Once you've removed that you can just lift your alternator up and out.
Now, what you want to do, there's a 15mm bolt right there, underneath the idler pulley, and then there's another 15mm bolt right back here. Then you just want to go ahead and remove those. Now, what you want to do is just remove this 16mm bolt here, and after you get that out of the way that whole tensioner assembly will just come off. Now, right here, you can see there are four 8mm bolts on the front here, and on the back side there's another four bolts in the same spots. You just want to go ahead and remove those.
With those bolts out you can now remove those valve covers, just pull them right up and out and make sure you take that gasket too. You want to remove the back valve cover also. Because of all the harnesses and the coil pack there, it definitely helps right here to have another person to just hold all that stuff back. Now, in your power steering pulley, back behind it there are three 13mm bolts, and if you turn it you can see through those circles there and you can get it. It's a little difficult to get to at first, so what you want to do is just remove this box by pulling that bracket forward, and you can pull that box up and out and just set it aside.
Now to get to the final bolt behind the power steering pulley, you need to remove this 18mm bolt right here. Once that's removed, you'll be able to access that last 13mm bolt behind the power steering pulley. Now, what you want to do is remove these 10mm bolts: there's two here and then there's four along the top, and then two more on the side here. Now, what you want to do is, using a flat blade screwdriver, just pry that hose off right there.
Now have a helper hold the fuel injection rail, and you can pull the lower intake manifold out. You see some coolant drip down in there, we are going to change the oil later. Now, on these rockers, they're 10mm bolts. You just want to loosen up those 10mm bolts so that you can lift the rocker up and pull the push rod out. You want to do this on each of them, don't actually take the push rod all the way out if you don't have to just lean them forward, it makes it a lot easier and then once they're all leaned forward you just want to slide that intake manifold gasket up and out.
We'll fast forward a little bit here as we repeat that process on the other side and we've got the intake manifold off. We'll end this first part and if you want to see the rest go to the same video for part two.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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