S-10 head gasket replacement?

S10HELP

MEMBER
2010 CHEVROLET TRUCK

I have done this type of work on the small blocks in my old muscle cars but this is a first on a newer engine. I have a 1995 S-10 with Vortec V6 and I need to replace the head gaskets. I am down to the intake and need some advice as to removal proceedures. Do you remove the plastic part of the intake first or the aluminum intake and plastic assembly together, I count 4 bolts each side or are some hidden under the plastic part? Is there a trick to distributor removal and reinsertion? A list of proceedures would be great if possible. Also is there a certian brand of repair manual that I can purchase that someone out there has used that they know has these proceedures, please let me know. Thank You

2 Replies

PEAR69

MECHANIC
1,482 POSTS

Hello, the vortec intakes have an upper and lower intake. The upper is the plastic thing and the lower is the rest. You do not have to take the upper half off to remove the lower half. Yes there are 4 bolts on each side. This is unique to the vortec design. You're suppose to remove the intake bolts in such a way as not to warp the intake, but the torque is around 25 ft. Lbs, and being that you have experence with torque and such, I suggest removing them alternating sides--from the center out--a-little at a time. Be sure to use the fel-pro combo head and intake gasket kit. The reason I say fel-pro is because the intake gaskets seem to be better than GMs'.
Removal of the distributer-- bring no. 1 cylinder up to TDC on compression stroke--take the dist. Cap off--the rotor should be pointing to the no. 6 or an arrow on the base that the caps bolts down to. Then make your own mark, just as a back up, and remove. However, when you put the distributer back in, the timing must be set with a scan tool. You cannot check or set the timming with a timing light because the computer automaticaly advances the timing.
I also suggest being your truck is a 95, once you have the lower intake off, take the upper intake manifold ( the plastic thing ) off to clean everything completely. The removal sequence of the 10mm bolts is stamped right next to the bolt on the plentum itself. Be sure to remove these bolts in three steps a-little at a time. The torque on these bolts is around 14 INCH POUNDS, not much, so be carefull here. Your fel-pro head/intake gasket kit has all the gaskets you need. Also be sure to put NEW head bolts in--and throw the old ones out---if you use the old bolts again, you'll be doing this job all over in a short period of time --I found this out the hard way--I think fel-pro has a head gasket/intake gasket/and head bolt set all in one kit.
A Haynes repair manual will have all the proceedures and exact torque specs in it. Be sure, when you install the lower intake, that you use three steps and a criss crossing pattern from the center out.
BTW if you want your truck to have more horsepower. While you have the heads off, match port the intake and exaust ports to the gaskets. This takes some time, but it's easy and it will give you about 20 or 30 more horsepower. Let me know how you make out---good luck

This site runs on small or large donations, please try to make one. Thanks