Hi all, I'm new to this forum and was directed over here by a good dude from a Buick Regal forum who said this forum is super helpful, active, and knowledgeable. I have an 01 Buick Regal LS (naturally aspirated) with the 3.8L V6.
To start, the car had a bunch of leaks when I got it. I am tackling these slowly but surely. I started with the oil pan gasket and changing the out the motor mount, both of which had failed and were leaking (one oil, the other hydraulic fluid of course). This is where my first question arises. During the oil pan gasket change, I had to remove the oil pickup tube to install the windage tray for fear of damaging it. I encountered an extremely difficult/baked on gasket at the oil pickup tube. I was tired, and it was late, and I unfortunately made the call to leave some of the gasket on that I could just not get off. So, I put the new gasket over a non-perfect mating surface. This was dumb, I agree. I still regret it. Next time I will call it a day and start fresh another time because it's not worth it. Given all of that, I've been concerned about possible oil starvation and decided to test the oil pressure. I took a couple short videos and here they are:
Video @ idle: https://youtu.be/GNe2CgEhYAc
Video @ 3K: https://youtu.be/VctvaU8hgsM
My questions are: is the bounciness normal at idle? Is this pressure normal for a car with around 114K miles? Is it odd that the bounciness of needle goes away at 3K rpm? The gauge was brand new. It seems as though it had good pressure and I'd like to stop worrying about the oil pickup seal if there is any chance that these results can confirm the seal is ok.
Currently, I'm working through the LIM gasket and valve cover gaskets due to other leaks. Once winter temps warmed up, I noticed steam out the exhaust pipe and fairly recently, a slowly decreasing amount of coolant. This led me to believe some sort of upper or lower intake manifold gasket failure. The valve cover gaskets were pretty obvious - oil seeping slowly right beneath them. This is my first time doing a job like this and I've snapped some pictures along the way with some questions. As far as parts are concerned, I am going to replace the upper intake manifold/plenum with the Dorman kit. Using Felpro LIM gasket kit, aluminum coolant elbows, new stant 180 degree thermostat, Felpro VC gaskets and grommets, new autolite iridium plugs and new delco wires (I took the advice of a DIY article on another forum which said that if someone suspects coolant getting into combustion process, it is best to drain oil and coolant, pull all plugs, rotate crank bolt manually to purge coolant out of motor, add oil, run starter several times to lubricate bearings and get additional coolant out, then drain oil. I figure might as well put new plugs in since I had the old ones out and don't know when the previous owner last replaced them. I've had car for about 10K miles total).
Pic of old plugs for reference. Any red flags?
Other DIY articles did not show this line and I'm unable to find what it is in my Hayne's manual. It seems either EGR or vacuum related. Any ideas? The line appears to go down toward the front driver side fender/bumper area into a canister. The other direction, it heads toward firewall and into a canister with a vacuum line and another line that appears to connect to a mini manifold and then to back of block. Just curious what it is and what it does.
TB before and after.
Injectors - what is the preferred cleaning method and solvent for these? I have mineral spirits, carb cleaner, brake cleaner, MAF cleaner, acetone, rubbing alcohol... some people say soak, some don't? I plan on replacing lower o-rings and leaving the upper portion of them alone.
Shot of UIM, removed. Next shot is of a failure point, glad I bought a new nylon manifold.
Was checking out new TB gasket from Dorman and noticed the crack. Is it worth sourcing another? I'm leaning toward yes.
Top of LIM, note oil in corners. Will plan to use a thread sealer when reinstalling the bolts. Is the white permatex thread sealer ideal for this application or is something like blue loctite better? Should it be used on all LIM bolts, or just the two hidden ones? What about on UIM bolts?
For reference / red flag review only. Rear VC removed
Front VC removed
LIM removed
Question: Should I remove the temp sensor and reinstall with new thread locker or RTV of some sort for good measure? What is the other thing in yellow oval - is it some sort of coolant passage? Should it be removed? If so, I don't know that I have a new gasket for it.
And a few pics to show some of the likely failure points on the notorious plastic LIM gaskets.
I know this is an absurdly long thread, especially for a first post, but I'm grateful for anyone that has stuck with it and might be able to answer some of the questions I've posed above. If I've asked anything that is blatantly ignorant, you can trust that I'm trying to learn by asking.
Thanks!
