Replacing through bolt seal
 

Hi all,

I've strip my 3.6 engine down to the short block. Now, I want to replace the through bolt seals that are leaking. My question is that, can I remove the through bolt completely to replace the seal on both the nut and bolt sides? I want to do this one through bolt at a time, replacing the seals on both sides, then torque the bolt back to spec and move onto the next one.

Does this sound okay?

thanks,
anthony

you can do that. use the tough green seals. don't even bother with the wimpy blue ones.

Check out this recent thread First time rebuilder gaining momentum! for info on replacing the through bolt O-rings.
-Chris

Absolutely push the gasket over the threads onto the larger shaft portion of the case bolt, otherwise the threads will chew up the o-ring like a tasty lunch!

I wonder if you should do them in the same order as the tightening sequence...? I can't hurt.

Thanks for the info. My main concern was that if pull the through bolt out, BAD stuffs will happen.

---anthony

Make sure you get old O-rings out. When you pull the thru bolt out, the O-ring closest to the end may come off inside the motor. It wouldn't hurt to run a plastic gun cleaning brush or a long handled bottle brush through the thru bolt passage to clean it out.
-Chris

for an installation sleeve, to protect the o-ring from the threads, i went to a hobby shop and found a thin brass tube that just fit over the threads, and cut off a couple of inches with a tubing cutter. the tubing cutter rounds the end of the tube in the process, which makes it easy for the o-ring to slip over.

I put tape over the threads and then ran the O-ring over the tape.