Major Oil Leak!

G

geoshanna

New member
Joined
Jul 23, 2012
Messages
94
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Dover, NH
My son had a 1999 Grand AM 2.4l that sarted with making lifter noise. He added 2 quarts and drove 15 minutes and stopped at his in-laws. When he came out there was a puddle of oil on the ground and lost all the oil he just put in.
I looked underneath and everything was soaked. He put more oil in it and drove it to my garage. Parts store says valve cover gaskets go often in these so I looked into that. Then I pulled the valve cover's sheild of and saw puddles of oil down were the spark plugs are. There where two other same size holes without plugs in them that were full of oil.

What am I looking at here? Not much experience with GM motors, put I can strip down a sb Ford with the best of them.

Trying to get pictures off my phone to post, but having phone issues. Will try with camera tonight.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
George
 
What you see is not unusal for the 2.4. The gaskets and plug seals have to be replaced.
 
Pictures...

here is what I can see. Thanks for the two replies, having problems with the site with my login.
______________________________
 
no mention of the plug seals in the Chiltons manual...go figure....how often do the need replacing?
 
I forgot to mention that it's a DOHC 2.4. Does that make a different in how I should approach things? The manual doesn't call them "valve covers" and I can't seem to find the plug seals with that gasket kit that was posted.

Thanks!
 
Ok, please be honest with me on this. Did I screw this motor from not follow ALL the manual instructions? I didn't put the motor at TDC before trying to remove the cam shaft cover. I can see the gasket is bad, but the cover isn't all the way off and everything is sitting at an angle.

Can I just stop here and get the motor at TDC and things will settle? The motor has not been turned yet.
______________________________
 
if the cam didnt move you are ok
 
The motor and cam have not turned at ALL! Yea! I'm so glad I did not screw this motor. Is there any other things I need to be careful of while doing this? I'm in to it to far now to turn back. Any helpful "been there" hints are VERY welcome!

Thanks for saving me!

George
 
I know I should get the motor to TDC first, but with the cam in this postion will that cause problems?
 
Pulling the plugs and timing cover to get to TDC....any other words of wisdom to share?

Thanks!
______________________________
 
I can't believe I have to go through all of this to change two gaskets??? Does anyone have a trick to doing this easier?
 
Thanks for the link! That helps! Just found out that he changed to a Synthetic oil! Does that make a difference with the gaskets? Do I have to continue with that oil even though it didn't liked it? Do they make gaskets for that ype oil?

Thanks!
 
Oil shoudnt make a difference. The only time it makes a difference is an older car that has sludge sealing any weak seals. When you switch to syn. the sludge washes away and the seal leaks.
______________________________
 
The manual says to get it to TDC first......with the cam exposted like it is, should I relieve the tensioner first and let it settle back down. Then go to TDC?
 
If you haven't taken the chain off of the cams you do not have to find tdc. If it ran before and nothing changed, it should run when it's done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top