99 3.5L engine rebuild questions???

I am thinking about braving an engine rebuild very soon on my 99 3.5L. I just decided I want to tear something apart and put it all back together very spur of the moment. But it will happen after alot of research and recommendations by anyone willing to help. I know I will need alot of tools,space, and patience and I am wondering what I will all need. All the parts I will need, and a list of all the parts I might as well replace while I'm in there. I bought the haynes or hayes book based on a complete tear down and rebuild. Does anybody know if that is a good route to go? My big reason for this choice is because the valve cover gaskets went out and are dumping oil into plug housings in cyl. #'s 4,6 and,5. It is still running but rough. I discovered this while changing the spark plugs and stuck my finger in a puddle of oil. The plugs I just replaced had already been replaced at the start of winter. So it is not misfiring now but I'm willing to wait another week or so and bet it will start again. Also it has a vacuum leak somewhere. BUT I love these cars too much to send it to a graveyard. Which is why I have 2. The 99 has just under 150k miles and has beat to hell and back No joke. It has burned oil for 8 yrs it started burning at 30k miles. Overall it has been an excellent car that in its youth was very well maintained but has now the engine has been neglected. I want to give the car a 5th wheel and go ahead and rebuild it. The body and underbody are in excellent shape with the exception of one spot of rust patched with bondo and primed and it needs rear struts, mounts, springs, and a chip in the windshield fixed. I'm not doing this just cause I love this car but I want to learn more about the engine and how to rebuild them in general. So just to learn and advance my knowledge on cars. Any recommendations or instructions are appreciated.

rhaigh08--

There's another member of the forum named krivasauto who is currently doing a headgasket with the engine in the car and documenting it at his shutterfly site. Look down below on the first page for info on this.

His shutterfly site is http://99intrigue.shutterfly.com/. He's got a lot of time into the Intrigue 3.5. Personally if I was in an engine rebuild situation I might see what I could get a low milage engine for and do a swap. There's several custom GM tools to remove the heads, hold the flywheel, and install the crankshaft balancer seal and pulley. These can be obtained off ebay.

If you've got oil in the spark plug holes it's leaking from the cam covers. There is gaskets in there that seal each individual spark plug. Front cover is fairly easy, and was documented on this site by LittleHoov. Do a search on posts started by him.

I believe that krivasauto also has some pictures of the removal of the cam covers for his front headgasket job.

Check out the shutterfly site. He has a lot of pictures posted. Several hundred total.

Good Luck and keep us posted on what you end up doing..

I am thinking about braving an engine rebuild very soon on my 99 3.5L.

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My big reason for this choice is because the valve cover gaskets went out and are dumping oil into plug housings in cyl. #'s 4,6 and,5. It is still running but rough. I discovered this while changing the spark plugs and stuck my finger in a puddle of oil.



Don't know why I missed this back when you posted. If you are still thinking about doing this, I would not recommend it simply for the reasons you've stated here. The pic below should show how to fix the oil dumping into the plug holes, which would cause oil loss and misfiring.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0df33b3127ccef94cf5112a6e00000030O08IZtXLZszag9 vPhI/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

Check it out at http://99intrigue.shutterfly.com/headgasket/39

Make sure you get the round seal for the hole where the coil ground spring goes - it is a separate part number from the vc gasket and ovalish plug seals (silly, I know). I cheated and just used RTV sealer after cleaning the seal thoroughly. The best way to remove the bolts for the rear vc cover is to use a 1/4 deep well 10mm socket with a gear wrench - they make adapters so that you can use the socket with your gear wrench:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0dd07b3127ccef9e0fc1b088200000040O08IZtXLZszag9 vPhI/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

Clean out the spark plug holes thoroughly before removing the plugs. Do it with the engine cold. Use Berryman's B-12 and eye protection. Fill the hole with cleaner, let it sit, cover with a shop towel, and blow it out with compressed air. Going to the hardware store and getting some clear vinyl hose to fit over your air gun and down in the hole helps. Repeat till clean.

Loosen the plugs a half turn or so, then blow out any crud that might be stuck at the base of the plug, which could break off when you turned the plug. Again, do this cold. Use an extended length plug socket you get at Autozone or Harbor Freight - the short ones are hard to fish out, and the ones with the extension attached may be too long for the back. Some sockets have too thick walls, so you may have to try a couple.

Be careful pulling the plug boots out, use needle nose or dedicated plug boot pliers, gently grasp, gently twist to remove.

Use a very small amount of antiseize - just enough to slightly fill the valleys of the threads. Wipe them down if you get too much on them, but be careful not to get any on the tip of the plug.

Clean the plug boots and reinstall on the coils. Note that they go on the coils only one way. If you have torn up the coil seal you will need to reseal with RTV sealer:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0df33b3127ccef94d1ed24a0c00000030O08IZtXLZszag9 vPhI/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

And don't forget to plug the rear coil pack back in.

As far as rebuilding, you will need good tools and literature.Subsribe to alldatadiy.com for less than $20.00 a year. Check out my docs page - there is a link to scans of engine teardown and assembly guides.

i have not seen an LX5 (3.5L) rebuilt yet. You will most likely need to re-ceramic (nikasil etc) the cylinders or slam some steel sleeves in. But many Intrigues go 200-300K miles+ -so I figure a 150K car is just barely broken in.

=cheaper to just get another $1000 Intrigue.

But not as much fun, and then you have the whole frying pan / fire thing.

you should always jump in with both feet -otherwise you may question your true intentions. =Many people can add ceramics to your LX5 block for your rebuild, However, I believe you may be the first.

You can do a craigslistpro search to find an Intrigue in your state. -$500 in my state with a problem LX5 -I would expect yours to be similiar. Plus you have car-parts.com etc.

=You could fund your Intrigue rebuild with the parts you sell for other Intrigue owners in need. "Fueling your hobby" they say.