Replacing Your Oilpan Gasket: 87 Pontiac Firebird, TPI V-8, 700R-4 Automatic.
Pre-op.
Drain your fluids now. They’re coming out either way. Get some shop rags handy, halogen work lights, extention cords, and something to separate all the nuts, bolts, washers and misc. small parts you’ll be removing.
Tools Needed:
1 engine hoist, and 2 floor jacks.
A full set of sockets and flat wrenches.
Assorted pliers, pipe wrenches, knifes, boards, steel pipes, chains, and a surplus of $ for the gaskets you didn’t know you would have to replace (TPI engines).
Beer.
Step 1.
The first step (this is gonna be an obvious one), jack the car up.
Not so obvious is that you’ll need to jack up all four corners. This is not always easily accomplished, but can be done with 1 jack, a good friend, and a 6-pack.
I chose to set her on 4 wheel ramps, the two on the left pointing in, and the two on the right pointing out, in hopes that she’ll stay put.
Before you get under your car, ensure that the parking brake is set (unless using jackstands), and that the car is stable, and wont fall on you.
Step 2.
Remove your hood. I chose to remove mine with the hinges attached, as they might get in the way later. To remove your hood:
Remove the six bolts holding the hinges down, using a 7/16" or 10mm flatwrench or socket.
Make sure you have a friend handy to keep the hood from going through your windshield.
Place the hood somewhere where it wont get damaged. Make sure it wont fall over, and put something soft under the edge you set it down on, unless you plan on re-painting later.
Step 3.
Now that she’s in the air, and your hood is out of the way, examine the area around your engine. You’re looking for any hoses, wires, vacume lines, cables, or brackets that will keep your engine from lifting up 6 inches or more. That means pretty much everything. Most of the hoses and wires should be relatively easy to identify, but you should consider labeling them to insure everything gets hooked up correctly when you’re done. If a hose or wire has plenty of slack, and you trust yourself not to tear it in half, feel free to leave it connected, but dont blame me if you break anything.
Now look at the back of your engine. See that round thing with the 8 or 9 wires coming off? thats your distributor cap. Want it in one piece? Then take it off.
Chances are rather high that you wont get the engine in the air without your distributor hitting the lip protruding from the top of the firewall (Or the firewall itself). So, pull your distributor too.
Use the tip of a flat tip screw driver, and scratch 2 marks, the first on the side of the distributor shaft, the second on the top of the intake manifold. these lines should resemble arrows, and point directly to each other. Make sure they’re close enough to each other that you can see them both easily.
Next, scratch a line on the top edge of your distributor, directly in line with the contact on the end of your rotor. This is important to keeping the correct timing when you re-install.
Now remove the bolt and retainer plate for your distributor, then carefully pull the distributor straight up and out of the engine. Wrap the distributor in a clean shoprag or hand towel. Place it somewhere safe.
Use another clean rag or towel to plug the distributor hole in the top of the manifold, to prevent dirt, screws, nuts and bolts from falling into your engine, because that would be…… bad.
Make a final check to be sure that no hoses, or wires will hold your engine down. You’ve got them all? Good, we should be moving right along.
Step 4.
This is when things start to get pretty messy, so keep plenty of rags or shop towels handy.
You’re going to have to remove your radiator, unless you did it during the wire/hose removal.
Begin by removing your airbox(y-pipe), MAF sensor, and rubber boot from the front of the engine.
Remove the hoses and coolant lines from your radiator. Also unplug your electric fan(s). Now remove your fan(s). That was easy wasn’t it!
I’m Trying to do this leaving my AC lines connected, so….
Now remove your radiator hold down plate. The radiator should now be free to move, unless you’ve done like I have, and installed a radiator cooler which used plastic zip-cords that go through your radiator (and ac cooler??), like I did. In which case, you’ll need to cut, then replace those zip ties. Now pull the radiator out of the car. That should give you plenty of room in front of the engine for a little movement, and for tilting the engine when its loose.
Step 5.
Its time to get under your car. Get one of your jacks handy.
Remove your driveline, there are 4 bolts at the back, remove them with a 7/16" socket, and a lot of extensions. Alternatly, you can unbolt your torque arm from the rear end and move it out of the way. That should make it easy enough to get the bolts with a flat wrench. Once the bolts are removed, use a screwdriver or flatwrench to gently pry the U-joint loose from the rear end. Move the driveline up, or down, and then slide it away from the tranny, make sure to center the weight in your hands, or the yoke(tranny end) will fall to the ground. Wrap the yoke/spline in a rag or towel to keep it clean. Set the driveline aside. If you removed your torque arm bolts at the rear end, it should slide out of the bushings at the tranny tail shaft, if not, loosen the two top bolts which hold the bushings tight. Now slide the torque arm back and free of the tranny. Set it aside.
Put the jack under your tranny, I prefer to place it directly under the tranny pan, with a good sized board to keep it from denting the pan. Its ideal to use a board about the same size as the pan, at least across, and about an inch and a half thick. Put the jack up snug against the tranny so it will hold the transmissions weight. Now remove your tranny cross member. There should be 6 bolts, 2 on each side into the frame, and 2 into the tranny.
Set your crossmember aside, and move up toward your engine. Disconnect your exhausts at the manifolds, either let them hang, or prop them up with a piece of coat-hanger or bailing wire. I wouldn’t suggest letting them hang.
Now you need to remove your motor mount bolts. This may be easiest to accomplish if one person is under the car, and another is above. Once they’re out, make another check to ensure that all hoses, wires and cables are out of the way. Triple check. Good. Now that Your engine is loose, move up top.
Position your engine hoist so that the hook is directly over the front of your intake manifold. Be carefull, this is a precarious position – if you’re tranny isn’t held by the jack, the engine will most likely swing forward when it clears the motor mounts.
Step 6.
Next you’ll need to remove your Plenum and Runners, This is a little complicated, but easily enough accomplished with the following tools..
Required items:
2 T25 Torx Bits. TIP:
You’ll want to buy two of them, in case you strip a bolt. These torx bits can be a little tricky, but I found out that they
get larger as they go up, so grinding a quarter inch off of the end can make for a much tighter fit, but you
wouldn’t wanna grind down your only bit!
1 (of each) Flat tip, and Philips tip screwdrivers.
1 Magetic Bolt Retrieval device. 🙁
Its actually easier than it might look to remove these guys, just take your time.
There are a few vacume and water hoses, and 3 sensors on the plenum, disconnect all of these.
Remove the 8 bolts (4 per side) that hold the plenum on.
Set it aside, probably on a clean towel.
Now remove the runner bolts. There’s one on the inside of each runner, going through the intake, make sure you get them. Set these bolts aside, keep each side seperate, and make sure you pay attention to which bolt came from which hole.
Once the bolts are out of the runners, remove the passengers side runner. On the drivers side of ’86 – ’88 cars, you’ll find the cold start injector in the middle of the runner, it should already be loose as it was held on by a runner bolt, it swings up and out of the way easily enough. Now set the runners with the plenum. Probably a good idea at this point to plug each intake hole with a shop rag.
Go over your engine one last time and ensure everything is disconnected.
Lifting your engine.
Step 7.
You’ll have to keep the chain away from your fuel rail, this is my method. I dont suggest using tie down straps, but if you’re brave, it’ll save you from the following.
Required items:
1 steel pipe, about 2 and a half inches across (inside diam).
1 piece of chain (for lifting the engine.)
2 Bolts, 2 nuts, and 4 washers.
Now get your piece of chain…I didn’t measure mine. The chain should be large enough to let an intake bolt through.
Find the center of your chain, lay it on the ground, folded in half. Now spread the ends apart. Place the pipe between the two chains so that the chain and pipe together resemble an A.
The pipe should be about a foot down from the top. Near the ends of the pipe, mark the chain on each side with a piece of tape or something. Pull the chain up from the bottom, meeting the two loops at the center of the pipe. make a second tape mark on each loop where they meet. Now feed the chain into the pipe from one side. Once you have a loop of chain coming out the other end of the pipe, put a piece of bailing wire through the chain at your second tape mark. Then connect the other side of the chain at its second tape mark. . Now that the two halves of the chain are connected, slide the chain back into the pipe so you have a loop of chain going into the pipe from each side, and your first tape marks are at the ends of the pipe.
Now, at end 1, use a nut, bolt and washers to tie the chain together, so the engine’s weight stays on the chain(not the wire in the center of the pipe) Do the same one the opposite end.
Be certain that the chain AND the bolts are strong enough to hold the weight of your engine and transmission.
You should have a device that looks like the one in diagram A. (sorry if it isn’t pretty)
Step 8.
Now that you’re absolutely ready to lift your engine, you might want to take the bolts out of your pan. Its going to be a little tight in there untill you finally do get room to slide it out, and this will help you from going farther than you need to.
Step 9.
Remove the second bolt from the front on each side of your intake. You will need to find longer bolts with the same thread pattern. Make sure there will be plenty of bolt in the head. Your original intake bolts aren’t long enough for what we’re trying to do, so do yourself a favor and spend a buck at the hardware store for a couple of bolts, cuz you dont want to drop your engine, or worse, strip (or break a bolt of in) an intake bolt hole.
Put a large washer on each bolt. Now feed the bolts through the chain about a foot to a foot and a half from the bar. Make sure the distance is the same on each side. Bolt the chain down to your intake. You should now be ready to pick up your engine.
Raise the engine about an inch or two, then check to make sure nothing else is attached, and that your hoist / chain system is sturdy and reliable. When you’re sure its clear, have your helper lower the transmission a little while you lift the engine. Make sure the transmission doesn’t slip off the jack, or the engine could swing forward and the tranny will hit the ground. Serious injury is possible at this point, so be carefull!
When the engine is clear of the motor mounts, try lifting the engine and tranny at this point. You should only need to lift the engine two or three inches off of the motor mounts to get the pan out. My tranny was tight in the tranny tunnel, but not enough to cause a prob. That should be it!
Step 10.
Get your gaskets out, You’re going to need (at the least): Required Gaskets:
Oil pan gasket. $39.99
Plenum and Runner Gaskets. (I suggest a complete upper intake set, it includes the gaskets I forgot to mention.) about $65.00
Thermostat Housing Gasket sealer. $5.00 or less.
Now clean the mating surfaces for the oil pan, thermostat housing, runners, and plenum.
Re-install
Step 11.
At this point I’m going to assume you know how to install gaskets. Beyond that, Installation is the reverse of removal. Simply follow these instructions in reverse. If you’ve followed my instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. I didn’t.
