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Here lies my currently dead prix......but will be bought back to life!!

spider4

spider4

New member
dead...but will be alive tomorrow
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and here are most of the body parts.
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97 with 213 k. Doing all gaskets,cleaning some nasty clogged stuff. New crankshaft position sensor. Had to put new plugs and wires in again only about a week after i had replaced because the work was shoddy. Also gonna be replacing coolant elbows and all vacuum lines. If i had more money id replace all coolant hoses,thermostat,flush.(Oh yeah also replaced the ignition coil module, wasnt getting good spark)
 
Well im the idiot luckily i have someone that knows what they are doing helping me. Or should i say im helping him or he might say getting in his way haha.
 
And you got the aluminum LIM gaskets right? Yeah I was just there too... Pulled the motor for a bent flexplate and ended up tearing her down to shortblock for a heads and cam build. Such a good feeling when it's all back together and running smoothly! If you have time to wait, I ordered a bunch of pretty silicone vacuum line hose on ebay for mine when I redid the vac lines. But anything will beat old cracking/falling apart rubber.
 


I picked up some red silicone vacuum hoses. I did not go aluminum gaskets (I know everyone recommends it). I have everything pretty much stock and was told the aluminum was more for performance modded cars.
 
spider4 said:
I picked up some red silicone vacuum hoses. I did not go aluminum gaskets (I know everyone recommends it). I have everything pretty much stock and was told the aluminum was more for performance modded cars.
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More for if you don't wanna do it again than performance. I've never tore down a 3800 that didn't have at least some signs of the plastic ones failing no matter how low the miles
 
Alum Intake gasket just seal better and people seems to have better luck with them, over the plastic.
 
Mine's an '04. The plastic gaskets that were in there were failing at each and every point where they contacted coolant.
 


spider4 said:
I picked up some red silicone vacuum hoses. I did not go aluminum gaskets (I know everyone recommends it). I have everything pretty much stock and was told the aluminum was more for performance modded cars.
Click to expand...
I have a 97 as well at at about 200,000 my LIMs went I replaced them with aluminum and I was pure stock at that point in fact mostly still am except for ram air added a year ago was recommend by the DEALER said that they they had a problem with those gaskets and came out with the aluminum ones to replace them so they would never have to be replaced again. Car seem to be running fine 110,000 mile later. Who said told you they are for modded cars?
 
spider4 said:
97 with 213 k. Doing all gaskets,cleaning some nasty clogged stuff. New crankshaft position sensor. Had to put new plugs and wires in again only about a week after i had replaced because the work was shoddy. Also gonna be replacing coolant elbows and all vacuum lines. If i had more money id replace all coolant hoses,thermostat,flush.(Oh yeah also replaced the ignition coil module, wasnt getting good spark)
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curious what kind of shoddy work would ead to replaceing plugs and wires I remember when you had them replaced said the guy took 4 hours? should have been able to just clean and replace them or did he not tuck wire right and they melted?
 
Hit the nail on the head Logan. The guys that helped with that didnt even bother to put the 2 or 3 wire holders back on and instead the back wires all melted due to laying across the hot engine. The spark plugs are all fouled totally blackened. The problem with the sparks is more a result of a few things that i guess we are trying to fix.My friend believes that once we replaced the fuel filter and the fuel pump it caused the engine to run richer and he said the coil modular wasnt giving the right spark. However also found that the last sparkplug,the one behind the oxygen sensor wasnt even in tight. Anyway as far as the gasket what is the difference in price between the rubber and aluminum?(sorry i dont know all the mechanical lingo,learning as i go. I am happy and confident that this guy knows his business and is teaching me)
 
I did it this weekend too :-) - replaced heads

A solid 8 hours of work, not including the port/polish work I did on the heads prior to this..
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And Afterwards
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spider4 said:
I picked up some red silicone vacuum hoses. I did not go aluminum gaskets (I know everyone recommends it). I have everything pretty much stock and was told the aluminum was more for performance modded cars.
Click to expand...

So let me translate that- "I didn't want to spend the extra money on something that I know WILL fail again and could potentially damage my motor. GM updated the gasket design and installed on all mid 04 and later 3800 motors just so they could charge more for the car."

Why would go through all that work just to do it over again? And whoever told you the Alum. LIM gaskets are for modded cars needs to quit giving you advice, or you need to quit listening. I'll bet that person also told you that you could do burnouts w/o toasting your transmission. Do yourself a favor and get the alum. ones. It'll pay in the long run when you don't have to tear your motor back down to replace them again.
 
FordMan77 said:
So let me translate that- "I didn't want to spend the extra money on something that I know WILL fail again and could potentially damage my motor. GM updated the gasket design and installed on all mid 04 and later 3800 motors just so they could charge more for the car."

Why would go through all that work just to do it over again? And whoever told you the Alum. LIM gaskets are for modded cars needs to quit giving you advice, or you need to quit listening. I'll bet that person also told you that you could do burnouts w/o toasting your transmission. Do yourself a favor and get the alum. ones. It'll pay in the long run when you don't have to tear your motor back down to replace them again.
Click to expand...

his engine already lasted 213k on the plastic ones...i doubt his engine will need the aluminum gaskets. his engine will just die before coolant leaks through again.
 
I agree CTRACER. I probably would have gone with the aluminum ones but being that i am just now learning this stuff i was probably convinced by my friend with 20+ years working on cars.Anyway if this last 2 or 3 years i will be happy because by then ill be ready to throw a new engine in anyway.
 
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