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Leaking coolant - head gasket?

M

Martin123

New member
Hey,
my Grand Prix 2006 is leaking coolant very fast without any obvious leaking spots. Whole coolant reservoir gets empty in about 30 miles. Some time ago I also noticed the oil consumption is rising up (cca 1 quarter of oil on 1500 miles).
I am afraid its the head gasket. Does anyone here have experience with the replacement? I wasnt able to find any tutorial video how to do that for this car.
Thanks for any tips!
 


Pull the oil dipstick and see if you have evidence of coolant and oil mixing. 2nd thing, look at the lower intake manifold where it meets the front cylinder head and see if you see coolant residue anywhere. You can fill the car up with water and run it. See if there is any bubbling in the overflow bottle. See if there is any white smoke from the exhaust. Those are tell tales of a head gasket problem. You can also get a coolant system pressure tester and test to see if the coolant leak is external. Replacing the head gaskets requires a full top end tear down and sending the heads to a machine shop to be checked milled if necessary... Not a job for an inexperienced person to do.
 
you see any leaks under the car or wetness around the engine, belt side?

the oil, you might have a clogged up pcv valve.
 
Soo its leaking somewhere in the back part of the engine (cca where the wheels ends), but I wasnt able to find the spot where is it leaking from. When I start the engine on and wait few minutes I can see lots of drops from there. These drops looks quite oily. The oil level is much above high limit as well.
Its old car with harsh transmission, doesn't worth investing over 1000$ for repair so I am thinking to try my chances and replace the head gasket on my own. Is it doable for amateur? I replaced thermostat, water pump and breaks in the past, but this looks much more challenging :/
 
oil over filled and looks like milk shake is the upper intake failed on you. heres whats going on http://www.grandprixforums.net/threads/60667-97-03-NA-L36-UIM-Failure

heads hardly ever fail, but that upper intake sure does. way less work then head gaskets too.

id drop the oil see what it looks like. dont drive it or it will die for sure.

edit, re read 1 st post 06 has th emetal itake and that dont fail to often, but worth looking into, never know. head gaskets are rare still.

start with a compression test.
 


Thanks for helping!
The oil doesnt look milky at all :/ Not sure about the white smoke (I can smell steam, but some time after starting the engine the white smoke disappeared). Engine temperature is above normal, but still far from red zone.
I will try to connect diagnostic to see what the computer says.
 
I found stream of water leaking somewhere from top of the engine. It leaks a lot, but I cant get any closer to that spot. Any ideas what could be the leaking spot? The picture is done from front wheel spot next to passenger seat. Btw I checked oil and it smells like gas.
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that looks like a lower elbow blew out. or worst case a freeze out plug rotted out.

the bracket the alt is bolted to has the two heater hoses off it, if you look close they are tubes through the bracket, engine off, follow the outer hose tube in to the engine, see if its wet .

hows the heat? it working?
 
I removed alternator and timing belt and checked the elbows, one of them is cracked (the front one) not sure if it explains the leaking spot. I guess it worth trying with new elbows again.
Btw does the gasket should look like this? It looks like someone was trying to fill some holes around, doesnt it?


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you can, just host the photos else where.

you need to clean the 4 holes good, fine sand paper is ok, lube the o rings with oil, then slide them in.

they sell metal elbows now. replaces the plastic crap that blows out.
 
If that "gasket" picture question is at the corner where the LIM meets the engine block, that is completely normal. Just looks like RTV that must be put there.
 


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