my valve cover on my 2.4 is leaking i have been told that i have to take my timing chain off and all of that fun stuff is this true or can i just undo the few bolts that hold it on to the valve cover and take off my head bolts or do i have to take everything off
We don't have a 'valve cover' per se on the 2.4L.. there's the IDI cover, which hides the ignition module and coil packs... which bolts onto the top of the cam towers. The cam towers have gaskets between the upper and lower halves... and yes, if you want to change those out you have to remove the timing chain assembly and it's a pain in the butt!!!
I would start with tightening the bolts in the affected area. You can do that without taking much apart. You'll want to take the IDI cover off first, then tighten the cam housing bolts. Just don't over tighten and break anything
^^^ try that
but otherwise youre going to have a big pain in the a.
It looks like you can just take the bolts off the cam housing. What you dont see is that there are two bolts that are inside the timing chain housing that go into the side of the cam housing.
youll have to put your engine on a jack and remove the upper motor mounts. then the timing chain cover. then the timing chain and gears. then you can take out the two side bolts to the cam housing.
luckly those gaskets are cheap if you need to do the replace.
z24 - CAI - Magnaflow Cat - PaceSetters
--exhaust and unorthadox pulley soon
while i have that apart i might as well change my timing and water pump sounds like alot of fun. guess for now keep an eye on my oil and see how long it last untill i cant stand it anymore and decide what to do then engine swap or gasket and timing
thanks for the help
John Lenko wrote:We don't have a 'valve cover' per se on the 2.4L.. there's the IDI cover, which hides the ignition module and coil packs... which bolts onto the top of the cam towers. The cam towers have gaskets between the upper and lower halves... and yes, if you want to change those out you have to remove the timing chain assembly and it's a pain in the butt!!!
I would start with tightening the bolts in the affected area. You can do that without taking much apart. You'll want to take the IDI cover off first, then tighten the cam housing bolts. Just don't over tighten and break anything
ussally everything one trys to do on a car turns out to be a pain in the but. so this timeing chain, how in detail is it a pain, is there no room for tools or is everything on tight that only the hulk can do.
just wondering becuase long ago i bought new gaskets for my cam tower to head connection and i got a serpentine belt tooo. so just wanted a heads up when i start to tackle this task.
~1996 Cavalier LS 2.4L (auto)
Yep my exhaust cam tower cover is leaking too, but leaking oil into the spark plug side of things, which ends up getting down into my plugs over time and fouling em out, ha. Common issue on the LD9 apparently, I know quite a few people who have their cam tower cover leak through the seams, but normally on an outer side, unlike me. Good thing the new forged engine goes in sometime soon.
2001 Olds Alero (LD9)
650 whp / 543 ft-lb
@turboalero
