Thread: Possible Engine Rebuild?

Hey all,

BACKSTORY:
Lately I have been going through more coolant then i probably should (about half a gallon or so a week) I have no external leaks that I can see. I just recently replaced the LIM gaskets with the aluminum ones. I was thinking I just might have a blown head gasket because the car also feels low on power. So today i went to where a mechanic buddy of mine works and he let me borrow their block tester and that checks for engine exhaust in the coolant (it will change color from blue to green). I performed the test like he said to and sure enough after the test the fluid was dark green. I read somewhere on this forum if you blow a head gasket on a 3800 you might have more serious problems to worry about then just the head gasket. So my question to all of you is should I tear down and rebuild the whole engine or just replace the head gasket's? B.T.W. the car has around 181.000 miles on it.

Thanks for any advice you can give,
tgarison

B.T.W.
The engine isn't running ruff and no smoke is coming from tail pipe... yet, so the head gasket hasn't completely gone out yet.

Hey matt5112

I am glad I took your advice I finally got around to doing a compression check today and all the cylinder's read around 180 PSI +/- 5 PSI so the head gaskets seem to be good I am still loosing coolant somewhere and its got me really confused I wonder if perhaps the LIM gaskets I installed are not sealing right. I also found out that the Catalytic converter is at least partially plugged that's causing the low power and poor fuel economy (getting around 13-14 MPG in town) do you have any ideas on where else it could be leaking? I don't see any external leaks.

Thanks,
tgarison

The area on the plenum near the tb/egr area is probably cracking, letting the coolant ports there blow coolant into the intake manifold... I've seen a few threads on here in the past weeks about this. Do you still have the plastic plenum?

The engine was stone cold being as I had not started it at all that day (didn't want to burn my hands to a crisp again) the UIM is stock with new gaskets and a new factory style insert, I did remove the stock egr crap tube and installed a smaller one to hopefully reduce the chance of the plenum cracking around it. I haven't pulled the throttle body off in awhile to check inside there i will have to do it sometime tomorrow.

My bet is crapped out LIM gaskets, hotter motor...warped the UIM.

Yea buddy...3800 love.

Refresh the top end, flush out and re-fill with new fluids.

Enjoy.

I'll put $5 on it being the UIM. Please check it and post back. If I'm wrong, pm me your paypal addy.

BillBoost,

Sorry but i'm not a betting man, (can't afford it) I will have to check the UIM tomorrow after I get done with my running around.

Have you checked the heater core? That leaks into the other side of the firewall, so you wouldn't see it in the engine bay. Though, you probably would've smelled it while driving. It will leak a lot more rapidly if you push the engine.