Head Gasket job

[Dthomas17]

Hello, first time I am doing a head gasket replacement on my 1999 Buick century and I have run into a puzzle trying to remove the right/ front cylinder head. I am not able to remove the exhaust manifold and heat shield due to the left engine strut mount bracket that overlaps everything. Please help and thank you

 

[Waiex191]

I've only been as far as to replace the lower intake manifold gasket. Can you post pictures?

Edit : if you mean the two front mounts that go from the engine to the front structure, just take them off. Each one is held to the front structure by 3 bolts. Then you can pivot around the bolt that goes to the engine mount. You can also easily remove that pivot bolt. The motor does not flop around too much with them both off. No big deal.

 

[NFortin198]

Those are not motor mounts, they are torque struts and do not support the engine. They are there to control the amount the engine will twist within the engine bay at times of starting the vehicle, starting from a stop or under heavy acceleration. Motor mounts support the weight of the engine. Since these are front wheel drive vehicles the engines are mounted sideways therefore the engine can not be solidly mounted to the frame/sub-frame of the vehicle as a rear wheel driven vehicle would be.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

The left one, I'm assuming the other part below the top part of the mounts, is also been part of the AC compressor assembly which will need to be unbolted to have access to the head. Again guessing that what the question is about.

______________________________

 

[chem_man]

I too am trying to remove the dog bone torque strut engine mount in order to remove the exhaust manifold so I can install a new gasket. According to the information I got from alldatadiy.com for the 1999 Buick Century, there is only one bolt holding it in place. After removing the bolt, the mount is supposed to be removed by pulling up on the mount.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get it too budge even with hitting it with a dead blow hammer. Tomorrow I am going to try a pry bar and I'll advise if I have any luck.

 

[Waiex191]

You should not need a hammer or pry bar. Take off the 3 bolts that hold it to the radiator support. Then either pivot the mount out of the way on the single long bolt, or remove that bolt and the front part of the mount. Do this for each mount.

Edit: in this post zoom in on the picture with the fans out. You can see the mount flipped up.

Another new member with a 2000 Century

We had somehow forgotten to plug in the intake temperature sensor. Plugged back in now and no check engine light. The outside air temperature is still off. Was reading 66 and it was 79.

buickforums.com

 

[chem_man]

I'll crawl under the front end tomorrow and take a closer look to see if the 1999 engine has the same mounting arrangement as the 2000 engine.

Thanks for the input!

 

[chem_man]

Here's an update of what I found today. There is only 1 bolt fastening the torque strut engine mount to the engine on the 1999 3.1 V6. However, the AC compressor is is holding it against the block so in order to remove the mount, one has to remove the AC compressor mounting bolts and move the compressor out of the way.

Since I do not have to replace the exhaust manifold gaskets at this time, I elected to not remove the AC compressor, and to delay doing the job until a later date.

______________________________

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

When you try again this may help

 

[chem_man]

Thanks!