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Oil Pooling around intake manifold and coolant disappearing

R

reenact12321

New member
My 2004 Grand Prix is starting to show its age. The Series III 3800 has served me well so I'm hoping to fix its issues and get a few more thousand miles out of it.

I have the well-known oil leak that pools around the upper intake. I see a lot of information about the recalls and the fire concerns (it does roll onto headers and burn even after the "fix" of putting a different cable bracket on when I brake).

I also seem to be losing coolant though I have had trouble identifying a leak. I just seem to need to add coolant every few weeks. (I get gurgling in the heater core and eventually bubbles get stuck around the bleeder and the temperature climbs when idling, but will maintain temp when running hard) Adding coolant and bleeding buys me another week or two so I've taken to just adding coolant regularly and bleeding weekly.

I see a ton of information on replacing Series II intakes because of the plastic plenum issue, but I was curious if they are similar enough to the Series III replacement jobs, and if this is likely to solve either/both of my issues.

Most of the old good How-Tos on here are now dead links, so pointing to a good Upper or Lower intake gasket replacement how to would be greatly appreciated.
 


the pools of what look like oil are cooant, it seeps up the lim bolt threads and its likely time for new lim gaskets. the lim bolts, you need to clean them off and put plumbers thread sealant on them so they dont leak again.
 
I'm not sure about that as it also burns and smells like oil when it hits the heads. It's possible I have oil leaking elsewhere and this is coolant. I found out today my car is up for a recall to have the valve covers and gaskets replaced so I'm going to do that on Friday, clean the area and see where we go from there but I'm not opposed to doing the LIM. I just want to eliminate all the possibilities.

The oil definitely has to be topped off quite regularly as well, and the coolant disappearance is a more recent development.
 
valve cover can be leaking as well. the recall only covers the front cover. not the back one. they replace the valve cover and new gasket. they toss your engine cover and plug wire holder too. so if you like them, take em off before dropping it off.

then you buy the lim gaskets buy the vc gasket too. the 04 supercharged engine can have a metal, or paper sc gasket. its real name is a upper plenum gasket. paper gasket is cheap like 15 bucks, but if its metal its like 40, but its also reusable. so if its metal be careful with it so not to bend it.

heres a pretty good how to vid. he does the lifters, you stop at the lim and vc gasket on the back side.

3800-lim-gasket.wmv - Google Drive
 
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