Ian555
New Member
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- Nov 16, 2014
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- Canberra
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- VZ Acclaim wagon
I know there's been a few threads already about water inlet gasket replacement on the VZ Alloytec 3.6L LE0 175kW engine. Here's a couple of issues I found recently with renewing the gaskets, just for a heads-up. Take a look at the photo. Issues were:
1. Gaskets no good. The replacement water inlet gaskets I used, Permaseal WO118, were not good. The nitrile gasket (the black irregular shaped gasket on left hand side in the pic) was not high enough, and did not project out from the groove, so it was ineffective and soon leaked. In the time I had, all I could do was buy a second set of the same brand. Surprisingly, the second gasket was a bit higher and fitted well. So watch out with these aftermarket gasket sets: there is some manufacturing variation.
2. Corroded bolt snapped. When I was reassembling after installing the second gasket set, one of the bolts just didn't seem to want to tighten up. Then it broke off - in the photo, its the snapped bolt on the left hand side. Also note the #2 Easy-Out with the other half of the bolt still on it. I had to use a Dremel type tool to grind flat the snapped end sticking out of the engine block, then drill a hole for the Easy-Out. I had a short 18V drill that just fitted between the block and the radiator. If you look carefully, you can see that the threads near the shank are corroded and the shank is waisted. That will be corrosion from the coolant. The fracture also indicated that the OEM bolts weren't high quality to begin with. I replaced the OEM bolts with hi-tensile metric M6x50mm hex bolts (1.0mm pitch, i.e. standard metric bolts) - the black ones in the pic. The lesson here is that as these engines age, the bolts around the water inlet, water pump, and thermostat are liable to this kind of corrosion. It might be a good policy to replace the bolts at the same time as you replace these components.
Cheers,
Ian
1. Gaskets no good. The replacement water inlet gaskets I used, Permaseal WO118, were not good. The nitrile gasket (the black irregular shaped gasket on left hand side in the pic) was not high enough, and did not project out from the groove, so it was ineffective and soon leaked. In the time I had, all I could do was buy a second set of the same brand. Surprisingly, the second gasket was a bit higher and fitted well. So watch out with these aftermarket gasket sets: there is some manufacturing variation.
2. Corroded bolt snapped. When I was reassembling after installing the second gasket set, one of the bolts just didn't seem to want to tighten up. Then it broke off - in the photo, its the snapped bolt on the left hand side. Also note the #2 Easy-Out with the other half of the bolt still on it. I had to use a Dremel type tool to grind flat the snapped end sticking out of the engine block, then drill a hole for the Easy-Out. I had a short 18V drill that just fitted between the block and the radiator. If you look carefully, you can see that the threads near the shank are corroded and the shank is waisted. That will be corrosion from the coolant. The fracture also indicated that the OEM bolts weren't high quality to begin with. I replaced the OEM bolts with hi-tensile metric M6x50mm hex bolts (1.0mm pitch, i.e. standard metric bolts) - the black ones in the pic. The lesson here is that as these engines age, the bolts around the water inlet, water pump, and thermostat are liable to this kind of corrosion. It might be a good policy to replace the bolts at the same time as you replace these components.
Cheers,
Ian
