Head gasket on a Saturn (Opel) 54 degree v6?

Hi everyone,
My girlfriend has an '01 L300 that has spent its entire automotive
career leaking coolant from various places - trans cooler, radiator,
water pump, and now it seems the head gasket (at least according to
her mechanic - I thought I smelled some vaguely "sweet" exhaust a
while ago, but was convinced that the MIL code she was getting was
from a bad MAF [code for lean, right bank]).

whether in Opel, Vauxhall, Saturn, Cadillac, or Saab variants. It's a
bit ridiculous - there's not even a bootleg CD-ROM manual on ebay!

So does anyone know what is involved in doing a head gasket on one of
these motors? I doubt the head itself is damaged, as the car has never
overheated. I'm hoping for a quick gasket replacement, and maybe
having someone clean up the face on the heads. Is this do-able with
the motor in the car? (I'm young, fit, and stubborn, so discomfort is
not so much an issue as sheer mechanical impossibility). Any crazy
tools needed?

I know there's not a lot of these cars, but surely somebody,
somewhere, has torn down the top end of one...

 

I have an '01 lw300 and love it. Thankfully with 105K, it has been pretty
trouble-free. I bought the factory shop manual ($140 through saturn parts or
www.helminc.com . Well worth it to have. This is a nice, powerful engine but
not very service friendly.
I was considering replacing the timing belt myself (something I have done on
other cars) and was put off by the number of special tools required for
locking the camshafts and aligning the cam timing. Not worth the cost so I
let a local independant shop do the job instead for about $600. If you need
to do the cylinder heads, you have to remove the timing belt so use my
experience as a starting point. What got me to change the belt finally was
that the water pump bearings had gotten very noisy. It was not leaking yet
but was not right and needed service.

Good luck - Oppie

 

Ouch, she just had the timing belt done when the water pump was
replaced about 2 months ago. I had read about the special tools and
decided to leave that one alone, although I'm rather skeptical that
the indie mechanic shop the car went to had the cam holders and
whatnot...

Is it feasible to just leave the cam sprockets on the heads (what IS
on the heads? I can't even find a cutaway or reference photo of this
engine), and loosen the timing belt at the tensioner, and slip it off?

 

I would have it confirmed that the head gasket is leaking. You can also get
an idea of when this happens because the coolant reservoir tends to overflow
and blow bubbles when the engine is running. It is a big deal even to get to
the spark plugs - having to remove the whole intake plenum. We used to pull
the plugs to see which ones were wet. No more on this engine.

It is not practical to leave the timing belt on when removing the head. The
cams are under a fair ammount of tension and will slip position without the
holders retaining them. The head will have to come off if you are certain of
the head gasket leaking. The head and block should be checked for warpage
and mating surfaces cleaned. While the head is off if there is nothing else
wrong, you might want to get the valve stem seals replaced and valves at
least inspected. Unfortunately it's going to be an expensive fix...

 

I think I'm probably going to pass on this one - but for reference,
here's a site that says it will rent out the timing belt cam and crank
holder tools!

http://www.ledfix.com/timingbelttoolrental.html