Series 2 head gaskets.

On my 96 riviera sc, I'm seeing oil around my head gasket seals, I'm thinking about replacing them asap,  anyone ever replaced them, I can't find a wright up on it.

head gasket or do you mean valve cover gasket? valve cover gaskets are what usually leak. if your head gasket is leaking you have bigger problems

I'm pretty sure it's my head gaskets, I'm not blowin any smoke and my engine is pretty strong still, theirs not a lot of oil but I think their leaking

Yup, I'm replacing my LIM gaskets very soon, but yes it's leaking out of my head gasket on the right next to that tube connected to that yellow thing. Right on the metal part, now I cleaned it off when I first bought the car 4 months ago, and it's slowly coming back, not to bad of a leak at all

I don't know much about my car yet so I'm still learning, thanks for posting that pic, that helps a lot I didn't know I could replace them when I replace my lower intake gaskets, thanks for the help, so what kind of problems were u talking about?

seeing the placement of the gasket in the pic,I can see a whole bunch of metal that can be remove from those heads!
whoo doggy!

Yah I'm fixing it ASAP

I highly doubt whether your head gaskets are leaking oil. When head gaskets go, they leak compression or coolant, or both, but not oil. Think about it, where would the oil come from? If you had oil above the piston rings, it would be burning in the combustion chamber, fouling your plugs, and blowing out your exhaust, and the oil would have to be above the piston rings to get past the head gaskets. I think you will just be wasting your money. It's a big job replacing head gaskets. The oil you are seeing is coming from the valve cover gaskets, or the front and rear seals on the intake.

Hmm that's true I guess I'll look into it a lot more, I'm leaking a lot of violent when I sit and park and the engine is cold, after the engine is warmed up, I don't leak it's weird. I'm going to see where it's coming from bc it is not visible looking around the engine bay. Where would that oil come from tho? It's on the right beside the tube in that picture, I can't post a pic I only have access to my phone.

It drips down from the valve cover gaskets. Get yourself a can of engine cleaner and clean the engine. Then watch where the oil comes from. The only other place it can come from is those wide orange seals (in the picture). Those are the front and rear rail seals for the intake.

Thats where it's coming from I can tell yah right now! Those orange seals! Awesome I thought those were valve cover gaskets, dang I'm stupid, I'm still learning a lot about my car

bmcd9179 wrote:

Thats where it's coming from I can tell yah right now! Those orange seals! Awesome I thought those were valve cover gaskets, dang I'm stupid, I'm still learning a lot about my car

The orange seals are part of the lower intake manifold gasket. They ALL eventually leak on these cars.

And they leak oil out of them? I'm running 4psi of boost right now could that be my reason? And all my vacuum lines are secure, I've sprayed starter fluid everywhere and nothing so, could that be my reason?

The lower intake gasket that goes to the head will usually leak coolant. The orange one will leak oil. The boost would not have anything to do with it. Seals just get old and eventually leak.

hm well thats my only prob, i wonder why my boost is so low.. it goes to negative 17psi then when i floor it it goes straight to 4psi

When you do the LIM gaskets they say to put big blobs of RTV in the corners where the intake seals (those orange strips) meet the head to LIM gaskets. I always use Permatex Ultra-black (best RTV ever) and in addition to sealing the corners I use my finger to put a thin smear across the thin edge of the block where the intake seals sit. They say you are supposed to leave the seals dry there, but I've often had them push their way out, and that thin bead of RTV there stops it from happening.

Ok, I didn't know that thanks for that I'll be sure to do that

bmcd9179 wrote:

hm well thats my only prob, i wonder why my boost is so low.. it goes to negative 17psi then when i floor it it goes straight to 4psi

"negative 17 " is normal during idling or maybe cruising, but 4 psi is low. Also, they measure vacuum ( -17) in inches of mercury (inHg) instead of psi since you can't have negative pressure. just a tidbit of info.

Oh interesting.. Yah it's low, but I think it's my gauge, I'm buying the aerforce gauge from zzperformace, that will give me the best reading, also for knock retard to, I'll need that to start upgrading pulley sizes without tuning it, so I don't hurt my motor. First things first is those gaskets, I need to replace those ASAP I have a rough idle because of it.

* downsizing pulley sizes

FYI, -17 is slightly high for vacuum. I regularly see -19 to -20.5 on the Aeroforce. It's probably not a big deal, but could indicate a slight vac leak.

That is true, and I don't have the aero force one yet I have a cheap glowshift one, and it's crap, the needle is off and everything, so when I get the aero force gauge that plugs directly in my obd2, I should see everything that goes on with my car, or at least most of it.