Head Gasket or DIC?

[jimfellows]

I have a 2000 9-5 SE with the 3 liter V-6. It has 115000 mile on it and is well maintainted. It did something very strange this week. I was at a stop light and all of a sudden it stated skipping or miss firing. I started moving and drove it about a hlf mile and pulled over and turned it off. I have an OBI II reader and checked, but there were no codes. I started it up and it ran fine. I have drivien it a few more miles and have had no issues. I was planning on changing the oil today and decide to change the spark plugs as well as it is around 27,000 miles since I changes them and it may have been the issue. I pulled the front DIC and sicovered oil in all three spark plug wells. There was the mosit in the one closest to the belt end of the engine and the least on the one twards the transmission. The rear set were clean and dry. The front DIC fialed at 88,000 miles and I replaced both at that time. I cleaned out the oil and replaced the plugs and swapped out the DIC for the "old" good one I saved. Is this a DIC or do I have a head gaskit going on my car? The coolent is clean, showing no oil.

Thanks,

Jim Fellows.

[N.E. Swede]

It's the valve cover (gasket) leaking oil into the spark plug tubes. Easy to change the front one

[jimfellows]

To replace, is jut pull the four bolst on the cover and replace the gasket?

Jim

[TankTak]

Originally Posted by jimfellows

To replace, is jut pull the four bolst on the cover and replace the gasket?

Jim

unplug the Di, remove it, forgot how many there are but remove all the bolts exterior of the valve cover as well as those within the chanber where the DI resides and pull up on the valve cover. When I removed mine I had to give it a wack with a rubber mallet to break it free, try not to stick or do anything that can ruin or damage the mating surface where the gasket sits.

Take a look at this tsb for torque specs and order of installation, its towards the bottom
http://www.townsendimports.com/Saab_..._1704_utg2.PDF

[N.E. Swede]

Originally Posted by jimfellows

To replace, is jut pull the four bolst on the cover and replace the gasket?

Jim

I believe there are 8 bolts total (once the dic is off). Make sure you get a valve cover gasket "kit". Each bolt has a grommet, and there are 3 spark plug tube seals. I use a dab of anaerobic sealer (permatex/loctite 518) to hold the grommets in the cover when installing

[jimfellows]

Thanks for the info, but the link is to a 4 cylender cover, I have the 6 cylinder.

Jim

[TankTak]

Originally Posted by jimfellows

Thanks for the info, but the link is to a 4 cylender cover, I have the 6 cylinder.

Jim

sorry I read too fast and missed that part

[jimfellows]

Thanks for the info. Saab USA has the kit istock. I will try my two local dealers first to see if they have them.

Jim

[jimfellows]

I repalced the valve gasket today. It took a an hour and a half from start to finish. Not a bad project. Thanks for all the help.

Jim Fellows