GREGGPENN

I was cautioned against pulling my intake (for a swap/leak seal). I don't KNOW that it leaks (in addition to my valve covers), but it might. There was a small amount of antifreeze on it before setting out to change injectors and valve cover gaskets.

The person cautioning me against removal sited the delicacy of the alum heads. IOW, he had a problem with a stripped intake mounting hole in the heads (for the intake). It required a heli-coil to repair it.

For fodder, I read that the injectors and the intake manifold were the problem areas for the L98 motors BEFORE I ever purchased my car in 1999. Because of the gradually increasing oil leak, I've always wondered if the intake was involved. And, I know that's not the only fluid that can cause a problem with an intake leak! To me, ignoring the POSSIBILITY of an antifreeze leak could be a damaging as avoiding the removal of the intake!

Finally, I wouldn't mind upgrading my intake -- though the lack of desire to do head/cam kindof minimizes the benefit. And, intake upgrades aren't that cheap!

Thoughts?

gp

94ZR1

Sounds like you got advice from someone who didnt know wtf they were doing
L98 intake removal is aqbout as easy as it gets and a potential leak could cause serious problems later

airblaine

if you get antifreeze pooling around the waterneck by the front manifold bolts then you need to pull the manifold and reseal. especialy when its not the waterneck or hose causing the leak. this is where the common leak for antifreeze is.
i took mine off had the entire intake bead blasted and polished my fuel rails and waterneck then put it back together with "rightstuff " on the front and rear china wall and have no leaks oil or otheriwse anymore. yes i have aluminum heads and had no problems with stripping them, just do it with the engine cold and clean your bolts b4 putting them back in.
also i chased all the bolt holesin my intake and used antiseize on em, they loved me for it.

93-383

With regards to your friends comment about aluminum heads being delicate. He is correct it is very easy to cross-thread a bolt into a aluminum head (personnal experiance) however I you do it carefully it is very do-able. Just make shure than the bolt hole and bolt threads are clean. Some people recomend running a tap to clean the bolt hole prior to reinstallation, I don't unless you have reason to belive that significant fouling of the threads exists. The same goes for running a die on the bolt, a wire brsh and vice will do wonders for threads but if they are bad I recomend a thread file before running a die on them. Clean threads and patiance will make the job a lot less expensive than mine was.

genefree3

Do you really want to repeat the last 2 days again? You're already there, "in for a penny, in for a pound" Fix the leak and say no more abbout it. Like a previous post stated, use neverseize, the bolts loved me for it. Peraonally, I would chase out the bolt holes in heads and wire brush the bolts before reinstalling. Just be sure to follow torque sequence.

Corvette Chris

Pull it. You've got most of the stuff off, you might as well go all the way with it.

Goldcylon

At this point pull it. Just take your time and dont rush it. GC

CorvAdel

If there is a small amount of anti-freeze on it now, there will be a greater amount of it later....fix the issue now.
I wonder if now is the time to consider a , say 211, cam swap.....?
It is not THAT much work once the intake is off...just an opinion from a layman ....

GREGGPENN

Thanks for all the replies!

To do a cam swap, I'd think I'd have to remove the radiator, condensor, and other front end items to ready the cam pull. Then I'd guess removing the heads or rocker arms & push rods comes next. Then the front of the motor... water pump, timing cover, etc... Then I don't know anything about pulling the cam. My neighber was saying that pressing bearings in after the swap was almost required. Doesn't sound that easy. Fun -- for an addict maybe but not easy.

Gregg

JohnyH

A thread chaser is a good idea a tap is not recommended but can be used and yes they are different just a word of caution!

jmrl98

Man, yank that thing Gregg, and siamese the openings of manifold and tube runners.

93-383

Heads don't need to come off, and cam brngs only require replacement if they are damaged removing or installing the new cam. However I would not call a cam swap a easy project I don't know about gen I motors but the Lt1 sits too low and the cam wont clear the frame member in front of it (plus it makes the balancer pull realy suck)

JAKE

I used to change a cam in an afternoon, now that I'm older takes me two days because I break up the job into two parts - disassembly then re-assembly.

I wish I had a dollar for everytime I changed a cam WITHOUT giving any thought to changing the cam bearings (can't be done with the engine in the car anyway). They were predominately 8 second quarter mile cars turning 8000+ rpms too but I did it on my daily driver.

Those who say cam bearings have to be changed are of the "overly cautious/timid/**** types". If you had to change them, I'd be the first to say so.

Don't let "cam bearings" dissuade you from going for it.

Jake

KCHOTBOAT

I think what your neighbor is taking about is the play a cam has(front to rear movement. I know with a big block and building a new motor I had to set up the end play on the cam with the rear freeze plug. The only time I changed cam bearing where on blocks that I hot tanked. You can't even change all the bearing with out knocking the rear block out through the back of the block. So as far as I know you would have to have the motor out or the tranny out.

jsup

Jake is right, he knows what he's doing.

The cam is actually pretty easy to do, it's just time consuming.

I travel for work, and do an hour or so a night and when I have time, so it's taking me a while, however, it's pretty easy.

Once you get all the crap off the L-98 (air pump, radiator) it's basically a simple small block with fuel injection. It's not all that hard.

jsup

My motor has a cam retainer, so it's not an issue. Mine's a 1990, I don't know if other years have that.

Muffin

BINGO. A tap will remove metal a thread chaser will remove fouling. Same for dies vs. wire brushing.

schrade

What does a chaser look like?

I clean the bolt hole jam with my shop vac and solvent in a sprayer bottle...

Dontcha' hate the ratchet goes backwards puttin' the clean bolt in a clean block?

RRT vette

GREGGPENN

I agree. It might have been coming from the thermo housing or the TB though. And, blowing back.

????