Hey Folks! I am doing my first ever lim and uim gasket replacement on my regal based on these symptoms. I was losing coolant, leaving a small spot on the pavement and could smell it burning as well. Also, leaking oil from lim and valve covers. I purchased the regal with 150,000 miles as a work car, replaceing my "98 regal" in the process. When I removed the uim I found some oil puddled in a couple of spots on top of the lim, although I could not visually see any obvious failure spots on the gasket. I have limited experience as an auto mechanic, although I am a lifelong industrial mechanic, and I do most all of my own front end work on my older vehicles...so I am not competely in the dark...but again, I have no experience on engines. But back to the issue...I also found the orange pasty/crumbly/gooey buildup in a couple of the water jackets on the lim, actually one of them was closed off. I assume this was the dexcool problem, I might also mention that I had the dexcool flushed out by my professional mechanic and now run regular anitfreeze. So was I correct in going in for a lim job? I am replaceing water pump, plugs, wires, heater hoses, radiator upper and lower hoses, temp sensor, heater hose nipples. Also, based on the 7 part video series on youtube, I am considering replaceing the fuel pressure regulator...as suggested. Any opinions on that? The video suggests that if the old one fails it could cause a backfire and blow apart the uim. One last question, can I use locktite blue on the lim bolts? Or do I need some other type thread sealant? Thanks guys, I am hoping to get another 50,000 to 75,000 out of this car. John

i dont think thats right, you want something like permatex thread seal or you will have an oil leak.

dont know about the fpr if it looks original it wouldnt hurt.

you want to find aluminum elbows and the aluminum framed lim gaskets if you dont want to do the job again. and i hope you dont mean you are using green? there is prestone extended life all makes that is good, for your engine.

https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-1...2005-a-304071/
https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-1...ts-l36-297702/

The Felpro gasket kit i bought is the aluminum based upgrade i need, but I bought the standard plastic GM elbows at autozone. I hope to find the aluminim ones you mentioned at the Napa store. I have read much about the anitfreeze discussion before I made the decision to swap coolants. That is with the blessing of one of the most reputable repair shops we have locally. Although i didn't see any damage to the upper intake manifold, I am going ahead with the replacement that has the metal egr sleeve installed.

You don't want to use a thread locker, you need a thread SEALER for the LIM bolts. Just coat the top 1/4" of the threads and you should be good to go.

If your going in that far with all the tools and parts, whats a few extra dollars for safety right? Its an easy part to change, so yea, go ahead and change out that fuel pressure regulator.

You may also want to change out the valve cover gaskets. The front one tends to leak oil, which will drip onto the sparkplug wire holder thingy and then drip onto the exhaust manifold. I've seen too many cars in the junk yard that caught on fire because of this. Yes, their is actually a recall or TSB on this. Somewhere...

Oh yeah, I am replacing the valve cover gaskets too, I just forgot to mention that. I got everything cleaned up really good today, all gasket sealing surfaces, and the throttle body cleaned out good. My felpro kit contained what appears to me to be 2 different types of the straight gasket pieces that go across the end of the intake...one type is an obvious fit, aligning with a couple small dowel type holes in the intake. The other must be for a different series engine??

Yes, you are correct, the other strips are for the supercharged engines. Dispose of them properly, dogs enjoy chewing on them.

I goofed, and it was a really stupid thing to do. I borrowed a torque wrench from my neighbor and the scale only went down to 30ft/lbs...so...I mistakenly thought I could start at the 30 mark on the scale, and back the setting down til I got to 11lbs. In other words, two full turns down would be 10lbs, plus 1 to get to 11lbs. Then I used that to torque my intake bolts. I got them so tight I knew I was way off somehow, but never heard or felt that "click" on the wrench. Called my buddy and he told me the wrench could not and would not work below the settings on the scale. I backed them off and started over, using a inch/lbs wrench and a conversion scale. My question is could I have done any damage to the gaskets by over tightening the bolts? Nothing stripped and I have continued with the repair, and I don't lack much to be done, just too busy at my job to get back to it. On a torque wrench note, I bought my own set last nite at SEARS, on sale for 40 bucks apiece, regular 80 dollars...seemed like a good deal to me.?

Which manifold? The upper or lower one? If the lower one, I don't think you could do much harm. When you hear "snap", then you know you broke a bolt. If its the upper, good chance you might have cracked the plenum.

The lower manifold, and no I didn't break or strip anything in the process. I also learned from a mechanic friend that on very low settings on a inch lbs torque wrench that there may not be a "click" to verify the setting limit has been reached, that you just have to feel for the "release" of the wrench.

if you havent done put it back together yet i would lake it off and redo the silicone just incase it over compressed. if you already did it might be fine if you didnt take the manifold off just retorqued bolts