You will not need a front (timing) cover gasket on 99+ cars. Its very reusable and I've never seen one ever need to be replaced. The valve cover gaskets are the same way.

What I'd buy is this:
1 crankshaft pulley hub bolt
2 water pump gaskets just incase (sometimes the old ones fall apart)
2 AIR tube gaskets
1 front seal

The part #'s are on my site.

 

jmX ... I understand what your saying, but, for 8 bucks, I think a new front cover gasket is a good investment since the front of the motor is coming apart anyway.

Just my opinion,

 

I disagree. I've had maybe 25 front covers off in the past few years and I've never seen a non-mint looking front cover.

I *do* have a spare front cover gasket in my garage just incase, but in hind sight I would have rather bought $8 worth of beer instead.

On a 100k mile car, maybe throw a new one in just to get some warm fuzzies. My 60k mile car's gasket still looked mint.

 

"but in hind sight I would have rather bought $8 worth of beer instead." <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />

 

Thanks, I appreciate the help.

 

I am going to install a cam in my '99 LS1.

Are the valve cover gaskets and/or the timing chaing cover gasket reusable on a 1999 LS1?

Other than that, will I need anything else other than a crankbolt, crankshaft oil seal and AIR pipe gaskets?

 

You really need these (don't reuse old):

Front cover crankshaft seal, P/N 12561244

Front cover gasket, P/N 12558013

Water pump gasket, P/N 12559271 (need 2 ea)

Harmonic balancer bolt, P/N 12557840

Put a new chain on it too.

Ron,

 

I see you are brand new to this board (your 1st post) Welcome

jmX has a very good how-to for this: (Well, this includes heads too)
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=2

Here is another: (cam only install)
http://www.ls1info.com/cam_install/

While your at it, take a look at this:
_______________________________________

REMOVING CRANK BOLT:

Disconnect Battery
Autozone has two different size gear pullers. Use the smaller size 3 jaw puller for the crank pulley. Also, you will need a longer crank bolt. The bolt you need is a 16mm / 2.0 thread pitch and 120mm in length (the head of this bolt is 24mm). This bolt can be purchased from NAPA as P/N 2801-225. Price is $5.39. Also purchase 2 washers P/N 8071-035B. Aditionally, if you don’t have a 24mm 6 point 1/2” drive socket; go buy one. DON’T use a 12 point socket. It does not grab enough meat on the bolt head, and may round off the head as you are trying to remove the ‘Super Tight’ crank bolt.

If this happens; YOU WILL have more problems than you would ever want to deal with!!!

Sears sells this socket in a deep-well version made for an impact wrench. This is the best one to get. The impact socket is much stronger than a regular socket and will not distort.

On an A4 car, remove the 2 bolts that hold up the starter. Leave the wires on the starter. You can get a piece of wire to tie it up and out of the way. Put a steel pin such as a large allen wrench in one of the holes in the flex plate (flywheel). Turn the engine with your 1/2 inch drive breaker bar attached to the 24mm 1/2” drive socket until the engine stops turning do the to pin hitting up against the block. You will need about a 2 foot piece of pipe [and] your long 1/2” drive breaker bar to loosen the pulley bolt. In fact, I had to use both feet to loosen the bolt!

Once the bolt breaks loose, install the puller. As you use the puller, you will need to unscrew the crank bolt when the pulley hits up against it. Keep doing this untill there are not enough threads left on the stock bolt to pull the pulley all the way off. Then install your longer NAPA bolt and pull the pulley the rest of the way off.

You will also need this longer bolt to start pushing the pulley back on the crank during re-assembly. The stock bolt is just not long enough, and banging on the pulley to start it on the crank is NOT the answer.

Good Luck,
Ron
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<small>[ April 14, 2003, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Tin Indian ]</small>

 

I shouldn't have to replace any gaskets on my 2002 2K mile car, I hope?

 

Removing the crankshaft bolt- method II:

I read this on the board here some time ago and had to try it myself when doing my cam install and it worked great. After first trying to break the bolt loose by pinning the flywheel and using a breaker bar I was having no luck. So I bolted the starter back up and put the breaker on the bolt, with the other end of the breaker (the handle) touching the garage floor. Make sure that the coil packs are disconnected and that the bar is orientated correctly- then crank the engine for a split second by turning on the ignition key. The bolt is now loose. When doing this you must be EXTREMELY CAREFUL and take note of the rotation of the motor when you use the starter or the bar will fly off into a fender (or into you). Otherwise, it works great.

I did not change any gaskets and I have no leaks after the install (my car has 32K miles). In retrospect though I should have put in new gaskets- I can't imagine how pissed I'd be if I fired it up and had a leak due to cheaping out on an $8.00 gasket.