The head gasket in your 2002 Chevrolet Impala is used to seal the head cylinders and stop fluid from leaking out of the engine and into the cylinders. It is the most important sealing part of the engine, and if it becomes damaged and not repaired immediately, it can ruin your engine completely. To avoid this you should replace your head gasket as soon as you notice that any damage may have occurred.
Turn your engine off and leave it for a suitable amount of time until it has completely cooled down. Open up the hood of the vehicle. Use a wrench to remove the bolt clamp from the negative battery terminal. Lift the negative cable away from the battery.
Place a drain pan underneath your radiator. Locate the drain plug at the bottom of the radiator. Remove the drain plug and drain the coolant in to the drain pan.
Remove the mounting bolts attached to the air cleaner unit using a wrench. Remove any connected hoses with your hands and lift it from the vehicle. Locate the intake manifold and remove the bolts which fix that in place. Also lift it from the vehicle.
Remove the mounting bolts from the head gasket. Each bolt must be removed and inserted in the exact hole which it was removed from. The best way to keep track of this is to get a piece of cardboard and begin removing each bolt one at a time. After each bolt is removed place it on the cardboard and put a number above it so you can keep track of which screw you removed and which order it needs to be reinserted in. Lift the head gasket away from the cylinder.
Remove all of the material off the engine block so that it is completely clean. Attach a new head gasket on to the engine block and fix in place with the mounting bolts in the correct order that you originally removed them. Reattach the air cleaner unit and the intake manifold by fixing them in place with the mounting bolts. Remove the radiator cap off the radiator and insert coolant back in to the radiator. Reconnect the negative cable back on to the battery terminal and fix in place with the clamp bolt.
