This was a big project. The valve cover gaskets were leaking on my in-laws' 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan with a rare 3.0 L Mitsubishi engine (similar to the engine as in the Mitsubishi Eclipse). Total working time, it took me about 8 or 9 hours. For a frame of reference, I did my valve cover gaskets on my 3.4 L V6 Toyota 4Runner in about 4 hours. Saved myself about $500. For this job, I probably saved my in-laws about $1,000. It is much more difficult to work on an engine when it is all the way back almost in the dash than having it sit the other way in the car.
Not many of the Caravans had this engine, especially the Grand models. They mostly had the 3.3 or 3.8 Chrysler engine in them. I did get some pictures of what I did:
This picture is the upper intake manifold off and the injectors out over to the side of the car:
The picture below is with the front valve cover taken off exposing the rockers and camshaft. This is about as far as I needed to go. It had been leaking oil for a very long time because the gaskets were extremely brittle.
While I was doing all of this I replaced the spark plug wires, spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor, coolant hoses (including the bypass hose), radiator hoses, valve cover gaskets, side camshaft gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, and antifreeze. It was a good thing that I had an eye for potential problems. I found leaky coolant hoses that had been leaking for some time that were hard to see without taking parts out of the car or actually knowing what I was looking for. This can be a big problem because when your engine is low on coolant, it overheats and you can ruin an engine running it while overheated. At the very least, it can cause you to be stranded. This was a big job!
This job is not for the faint of heart and I would recommend that you have some other wrenching experience to help with the automotive concepts involved with taking all this stuff out of the car. One screw-up and the car won't run right or you could even have a gas leak and cause an engine fire. In that case, you would have to take it all apart again. I was fortunate to have the Chilton manual to get the torque specs on everything that needed to be torqued down and in a certain sequence which was everything touching a gasket. It took me much longer to put it all back into the car than take it out due to tediousness of the torque procedures (right order and right amount of torque). I was very careful and made sure that everything was hooked up correctly. In other words, I took my time and didn't rush the job because rushing is what leads to future problems.
If I was to explain everything that I did step-by-step it would take all day to write it out. But I do want to explain some important concepts involved with doing this and some special tools required.
When taking spark plug wires out, label them with tape so that you know where they go. On this car, the distributor (the thing in blue above) was labeled with the cylinder number with the corresponding hole for the spark plug wire.
Another thing you have to be careful of is the injectors. They are very expensive (usually about $150 each) and very delicate. They need to be removed with the fuel rail. If you don't, then you will have to buy new seals and they can be expensive ($8 each X 2 for each injector X 6 for each injector = $96). You need to label the injector wires so you know which cylinder they go to. Once again, if you get a wire crossed, then you have to undo a lot of stuff to get it right and the car won't run until you have it all back together correctly. When putting injectors in, you need to make sure that the seals and corresponding holes are clean. Put clean engine oil around the seals to prevent them from leaking. I usually pour about 1/4 oil cap from the bottle with clean oil and use my finger to spread the oil around the seals. If they are not clean, they will surely leak and the risk is an engine fire. When I took off the lower intake manifold (top picture), I was sure to clean everything up really good. Water works fine along with some good carb and choke cleaner. Just make sure it is dry when putting it back in the car because cars don't run on water.
I had to use an inch pound wrench. They are a miniature torque wrench you see at the tire places. This is a must since if you don't get the torque right the gaskets will leak. This is something that places like Checker and Autozone do not rent.
Usually when torquing bolts that hold down gaskets, you work from the middle bolt toward the outside. Take the top picture with the lower intake manifold for example. You would work from the middle outward, switching from front to back as you go along a little at a time. You end up going in sequence 3 or 4 times before you finish the whole piece. There were 8 bolts holding that down.
Finally, use good quality parts. I can not say enough about using good parts. I generally don't use parts from Checker or Autozone. Compared to the local parts stores like Parts Plus, Napa, Carquest, etc their parts are lower quality and don't last as long. This job is one I would not like to repeat. My motto is: Do it once, do it right, be thorough, and you won't have to worry about it.
The results of being thorough paid off. The van runs better than it has for a very long time. It will get good gas mileage and be reliable.
Thank you for posting this! It's 4/21/11 and my Dodge Caravan is being seen for the very same thing! (plus a leaky water pump "o" ring and a MAP sensor). I really had no idea what the job would entail- although the mechanic did tell me that there would be a lot of labor involved. Thank you so much for explaining it to me! I'm a mama and I never had the patience to work on cars. -April
ReplyDeleteWhew! That was a lot of work, Kaydon. What you said is true. You need to have ample experience if you are to do something like this. Luckily, I watched my dad fixing or improving our car and learned a thing or two. I recently replaced the rotors, spark plug, cambered the wheels and cleaned the radiator of my 2003 Mitsubishi Adventure. It incurred all these damages because of it was unused for eight months. It took me a week to get it back into tip top condition.
ReplyDeleteEnoch Ross
I have a dodge shadow but the engine is identical. How would I go about getting the intake manifold off? I took off the 12mm nuts that hold it to the engine and the fuel injectors are out. wiggles on bellhouse side but still held on solid on the accessory belt side.
ReplyDeleteDoing a head gasket change if you have any other tips to reaching those parts of the engine
Actually I found it, it was bolted to the alternator bracket on the left where some kind of sensor sits
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