Did a head gasket repair on my son's 89 quad 4 Grand Am and the car started
up and appears to run fine. However, I have a major oil leak from the new
gasket I put on the time chain cover. The leak is coming from the top of the
center gasket. When I installed the new gaskets I didn't put any sealant on
them, I had assumed that if you did that you would never get the cover off
again with out destroying the gasket. What do you folks recommend for this,
do you use any sealant on the cover gasket if so what do you use?

Thanks in advance

CCTGENE wrote:

I've never used any sealant on any of the Quad timing cover gaskets.
Are you sure that's where the leak is coming from? Are you talking
about the gaskets between the timing chain housing and the block,
or the timing chain housing and the flat cover on the front of that?
If it's a major oil leak, I'd be more suspicious of the gaskets between
the camshaft housings and the timing chain housing. You can get
fooled by those gaskets, as they have a strip of sealant on one side
of the gasket, but the strip faces the housing on one camshaft and
the front cover on the other. If you reverse either one of them, it
will not seal properly. I hope this isn't the problem, as you will
be taking a fair bit of the engine back apart again.

These are the two gaskets that I'm referring to.....you can see
the oil passage at the bottom of each housing, and you can see
how each housing is a mirror image of the other.

http://members.shaw.ca/ianrmac/Images/DSC02309.JPG

Ian

"shiden_kai" <V-L-M (AT) hotma1l (DOT) com> wrote

one of the cam housing gaskets on backwards. This was the first time I
worked on this Quad 4 engine and I hope it's the last! My son had received
an estimate, site unseen, of at least $2,000 from a local garage to replace
the head gasket and I originally thought that, that was a ridiculously high
figure. However, after actually doing the job I can see why they would
charge so much! Boy, that's a hard engine to work on! The job still ended up
costing around $500 as the cylinder head was warped so badly that it had to
be replaced. God only knows what the final tab would have been from a
dealership or a garage when you factor in their high labor cost.

Thanks again

Gene from Georgia

CCTGENE wrote:

It is a fairly complex engine to work on. Kudo's to you for
being able to get the job done. Believe me, there are professionals
who have made the same mistake you did. I've never made "this"
particular mistake, but I have seen other's do it and fortunately
have learned from their mistakes. I've made many other mistakes,
but the mistakes only help you to tighten up your repair procedures,
and help other's before they make the same mistake.

No problem, that's why I post here.

Ian