Neon Head Gasket Replacement

Replacing the Neon headgasket is not a fun job. It should be easier than this, but it isn't. This thing took me a LONG time. I didn't take pictures as I went, but have a few in the middle of the job when I needed a break.

First, go to this site [allpar.com]. This is a great site that I used to inform me of a real-world head gasket replacement job. I am writing this down many months after the event, so it won't be too accurate. Email me if you have questions. Another great site is this one. He has lots of pictures about a SOHC timing belt replacement. That's like 50% of the job we're doing, and the disassembly is the same, so follow the pictures!

Second, go to the public library and grab both the Chilton's for your car, and the official repair manual if you can. I lucked out, and checked out the Chilton's and made photocopies of the important pages from the official manual.

My head gasket had been going south for a long time. The original head gasket was replaced sometime in, oh, 1998 or so on this 1996 Dodge Neon Sport Sedan under warranty. Unfortunately, the actual repair came before the new MLS headgasket was introduced, so it didn't really fix the problem. I was leaking oil like a monster, and since I am lazy and put this thing off for literally, months, I was also mixing coolant and oil enough to sludge up the overflow tank. Yes, learn from my mistakes.

Look on the driver's side of the engine block, toward the firewall. If you see a big pool of oil on top of the bellhousing, you gots yourself the famous headgasket leak. Mine had gotten bad enough to leak out a big 'ol puddle onto the ground after a few days of sitting. Yikes! I may be lazy, but I kept her topped off diligently.

Pretty much everything is kosher on the allpar site mentioned above. I will talk about things that were pains in my behind. I used a combination of whatever seemed more logical from the three sets of instructions I had. Pictures helped. I'll reference the allpar instructions as my guide below, commenting in between sections.

Allpar:

• Jack the right front side of the car.
  
• Support car with jackstands.
  
• Remove the right front tire.
  
• Remove the inner wheelwell cover.
  • Removing the inner wheelwell cover is aided by the pictures in the manuals. Dig around for them screws!
    
• Remove the crankbolt. If too difficult, spray with some penetrationg oil first, then let sit.
  • I did not have any trouble removing the crank bolt. Big freaking socket wrench helps here. So no need for penetrating fluid.
    
• After removing the crankbolt, spray the area vigorously with penetrating oil.
  
• Spray other areas that will need removal, including exhaust manifold bolts.
  
• Let car sit overnight, occasionally reapplying penetrating oil
  • I didn't do this, as we were raring to go!

Moving on:

• Open Hood.
  
• Disconnect the battery.
  
• Drain coolant.
  • Draining coolant is accomplished through the draincock near the middle of the bottom of the radiator. Open 'er up, but don't go too far! If you do, it'll pop out and coolant will come out of more than one place, making it harder to catch in your milk jug. Dispose of nicely!
    
• Remove airbox assembly - unbolt from rear of head.
  • Airbox has two bolts through the rear.
    
• Unplug wiring harness and strap it out of the way.
  
• Remove the coil pack and wires.
  • Coil packs are delicate and expensive. Treat with kid gloves.
    
• Remove ground strap from head.
  
• loosen and disconnect EGR valve from head. Actual removal from engine bay unnecessary.
  
  • Disconnecting EGR valve from head is a trying experience. There are two 10mm bolts that go through the top and bottom of the fitting on the head. There is a metal gasket between the head and the EGR fitting. Getting to either one will be annoying. You will be cursing someone's name in vain. If your EGR is throwing codes like mine was, replace this item now. I didn't, and had to redo half this disassembly to get it to come off. I left it hanging in there during this R&R procedure, so it's true that you don't have to remove it from the engine bay.
• Unbolt intake manifold from head.
  • This is interesting. The manuals will give you a better idea of where the bolts are. Some are awkward to get to. Find some extensions and you'll manage.
    
• Remove spark plugs from head.
  
• Unhook Fuel Injection Assembly from fuel line.
  • Depending on how long the car has been sitting at this point, the quick disconnect may give you a spray of fuel. Grab a rag, be prepared. Shield your eyes! Fuel is fun!
    
• Remove Fuel Injection rail/fuel injectors from head. Note: Was informed, not a necessary step
  • It is not necessary.
    
• Remove alternator belt.
  • This is accomplished by loosening the alternator belt using the drive from the rear of the alternator bracket (towards the rear of the car). Keep cranking it until the alternator belt is loose and just pull it off.
    
• Remove valve cover.
  • You will have to give a good pull here to break the spark plug gaskets away from the valve cover. These seals are important, so get some new ones. They are, ahem, interesting to R&R. You'll get it. You can also wait until later to remove this (recommended), since you don't want stuff falling down in there.
    
• Unbolt exhaust from exhaust manifold.
  • My two bolts were completely buggered. Rusted solid in place. It is a hard place to get a wrench on one end. Penetrating fluid might help here, but heat and corrosion are bitches to fight with. I started dremling my way through one, but finally managed to turn it while popping veins in my forehead. Persistence, young Skywalker.

   

Now, more from Allpar:

• Jack the right side of car til the tire is off the ground and support it.
  • Mine was already up in the air, isn't yours?
    
• Remove the front tire.
  
• If you replaced the engine cover, remove it again.
  
• Loosen air conditioning compressor, then remove belt.
  
• Remove power steering pump/belt if applicabe.
  • As JeffB's instructions point out, you can remove the belt and then swing the entire assembly out of the way of the head. I did this and it worked wonderfully.
    
• Remove crank bolt.
  
• Using the puller, remove the crank damper/pulley.
  • This should get its own section. If you do not have the proper MAC tool for this, it'll be, ahem, interesting. The pulley is not keyed like some other cars (Audis), so it's a 6000-lb press fit. Yes, you heard me right. 6000 pounds. You aren't getting that out with a BFH anyday now.
  • The best thing to do is run somewhere to borrow the appropriate tool. Really, it's totally totally totally worth it. Otherwise, run to the auto parts store and grab all the three jaw pullers they have for rental. You never know which one you'll need. Get them all. The deal is you need to pull the pulley off by pushing basically on the block through the bolt hole for the crank bolt. You need to do this carefully, as you don't want to trash the threads, or break the insert off inside the bolt hole. Youch.
  • I used a 4-ton generic puller, I believe. I created an insert out of a piece of a metal rod I had lying around. It happend to fit inside the crank bolt hole just fine, lucky for me. You can see pictures in my gallery. I drilled a small hole/resting point for the jaw puller in the end of the custom tool to keep it centered good. Remember, you are putting a ton (literally) of pressure on this point and you don't want it to slide off!
  • Get the jaws around the crank on the inner side. Experiment with orientation of the jaw pullers (inner pull vs. outer pull), and you will come up with something. Crank on that mofo until the pulley comes on out!
  • I initially used a 2-ton smaller Craftsman puller. It started shearing the threads and bending before the pulley budged. You need something heavy duty.
  • At some point, though, the metal rod will be too short for you to center the puller on it. In that case, I drove the crank bolt back in and used it as the point of contact for the puller. Not really recommended, but it was all I had. In retrospect, I should have just ground out another pulley tool that was longer and used that, but I didn't have any metal rod left.
  • The real tool has a rod that is partially threaded for the puller portion, and the non-threaded portion fits down into the crank bolt hole and rests on the block. It looks like it'll work great, and it definitely will make reinstallation easier. If you can imagine, this ad-hoc method doesn't lend itself to putting the pulley back on.
    
• Remove front timing belt cover. Place floor jack with wooden block under the oil pan. Raise jack til block touches the pan. You can use the floorjack to raise/lower motor to help with clearances.
  
  • Okay. Allpar makes this sound easy. Plus the note to remove engine mount is NEXT. I don't get that. I removed the engine mount before trying to remove the front tbelt cover. Read JeffB's instructions here, as they are much more clear.
  • Remove the passenger side engine mount. You have to remove the purge solenoid, then take out the through-bolt, then remove the mount. Hopefully, you have something under the engine at this time to take the load off the through-bolt, or else it'll be difficult to remove :).
  • Now, to remove the timing belt cover is a total PITA. Read JeffB's assessment of the situation, and you should be able to do it. The bolts go all the way through in places to the head. They are long bolts without enough space on the passenger side fender to get them out. Interesting. It must have been put together before the engines went into the cars at the factory. I'd like to see how real techs get this thing out smoothly.
  • You can remove some of the bolts by wiggling the engine up and down on the block of wood on the jack. Don't tweak the engine too far, as it's hooked to a lot of other stuff that isn't meant to be moved too far (transmission)!
  • JeffB's statements are pretty close to on, but you'll have to see how it goes. My front bracket is steel, and it's heavy, adding to the effort required to remove this piece. I guarantee you'll stare at it awhile :). I removed the bottom bolt by lowering the engine a bit, then with a bit of twisting, I removed another bolt out the top. Then, with even more twisting and wiggling of the engine, I got the entire cover with the third bolt out together. You will enjoy putting this back in!
  • Now you can remove the cover.
    
• Unbolt/remove engine mount.
  • You should have already done this.
    
• Rotate the crank until the timing marks on the gears line up with the cover.
  
• Remove tensioner.
  • Checking the second site above, if you plan on reusing the tensioner (I did), put a pin through the hole so that it isn't fully extended when you go put it back on. You may need to put this thing in a clamp to retratct the pin to the point where you can put a pin through the eyelet. If it isn't fully retracted, you can't get it and the idler pulley to go back on. Many people say to get a new tensioner, but I couldn't get one from the dealer in the time frame I wanted. So I put it back. Speaking with a tech at the dealer, he said that as long as it can be retracted and still comes forward, since it is hydraulic, you can reuse it. Caveat emptor.
    
• Remove timing belt.
  
• remove timing gear from head/camshaft.
  • Now read the JeffB site. This will tell you how to remove the timing gear without the Miller/MAC tool. You basically put a screwdriver on an 8mm bolt that is behind the cam gear. Leverage a socket wrench against that to turn the bolt that holds the cam gear. This keeps the cam gear from turning. Look at his site for the pictures.
    
• Remove rear timing cover - if you plan on changing the water pump.

Back at allpar:

• Remove thermostat housing.
  
• Remove headbolts.
  
• Loosen the head from the block by rocking and careful use of a prybar.
  
• Lift the head with the exhaust manifold and remove from the car.
  • Yep, it's pretty easy. You might want to have a buddy to help you lift it. It's probably on the order or 70 pounds.
    
• Clean all surfaces - block, head, intake ports.
  • Do a good job. You don't want to come back here. Inspect the head and the block deck for warpage with a very fine straight edge. Look for etched areas as well where exhaust gases have created pathways to the outside world. If you have any of these, you might want to take the head to a machinist to fix/deck/plane. Get rid of everything that is not smooth. I spent literally hours here.
    
• Check surfaces for warpage - check specs in service manual.
• Use new head bolts if you are worried or the originals are stretched. (Some people recommend simply always using new head bolts since they do not cost very much.)
  • They do not cost much. Do it.
    
• Make sure you tighten the bolts to specs in the correct order. Refer to the manual.
  • Check your head gasket kit. It will have updated values and order for the tightening. Use these! Read them carefully, as they have different values for the DOHC as compared to the SOHC.
    
• Replace the rubber grommets in the valve cover.
  • These were a pain to pry out. They were really stuck in place. I used a screwdriver and luck to not scratch the valve cover. It's interesting.
    
• Replace the tensioner with a new one. It might not be necessary. I have 170k miles on mine. But a friend of mine, his Breeze's tensioner broke about 3k miles after his headgasket replacement. So, you might want to be safe than sorry. (Editor's note: if you use the old one, make sure you reset it.)
  • I simply reset mine. No problems yet.

   

Reassembly isn't terrible. The tricky part is getting that crank damper/pulley back on there. I think the Miller/MAC tool does this by threading down the crank bolt until it hits the end, and then allows you to crank down on the pulley to get it to seat nicely. Perhaps using all the threads of the crank bolt hole is okay, perhaps not. Seems a little sketchy to me.

If you read the installation instructions for an Unorthdox underdrive pulley, they suggest taping a big bag of ice to the the crank snub (the little bit of the crank that sticks out for the pulley to hold on to) to get it to contract. Then, they say to stick the pulley in the oven at 500F for a while to get it to expand. Grab your gloves and quickly jam the pulley on there while it's red hot and all expanded. On mine, the pulley is a big piece of metal, so you'll need to have it in the oven for like 45 minutes, they say. That's for their product, not the stock pulley. Either way, you'll have to get it piping hot to get it to expand. Torching it might be an option, of course.

If I do it again, I'd ice down the snub mount and torch the piss out of the pulley center bore. Get it to seat all the way down on the snub mount, and then while it's still hot, install the crank bolt to the right spec. Check again later to make sure it's in there correctly after cooling down.

All in all, a MAJOR pain in the ass to replace. Dealer quoted me $1500 for the work. It's nearly $500 in parts, but still, that's a lot of cash. I understand why now.