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Yep! 16 psi. Got it from work to nearly home when it started to shoot up. Pulled over and I'm looking at water coming from uh...the passenger side frame ish area between the overflow tank and the engine. Thought it was the tank but it's full, could be overflow that exceeded the tank. Looking at the water pump though I do see a tad of water on top of the ac compressor...could be spillage from pouring water into that crazy eyes of a rad filler neck though. As of yet still don't know.
Ok got it to duplicate the issue annnnd....it's absolutely pouring tons of water out of the overflow tanks overflow port
Its the front engine cover... That and lim gaskets on the 3.1... : )
Gotta check and look real close to try and see where water is from... But if you do lim, front cover is just another step.
Is there a decent video on replacing the front engine cover? When doing this job, what all gaskets do I need to purchase exactly?
For the video check YouTube they might have something.
As far as gaskets, go to the parts store and buy the metal felpro intake gasket kit, do not get the plastic ones otherwise you will be replacing them again. Tell the dude behind the counter that you need the front cover gasket, if he's got half a brain, he should be able to get you the gaskets kit for replacing the front cover gasket. You will also need a rocker arm removal tool, GM thought they would be funny and put the pushrods through the intake gaskets.
Sent from A Galaxy Far Far Away
Why do you need a rocker arm removal tool on a 3.1? Also I have had water shoot out of the LIM gasket as well so make sure it's the cover before you break into that mess.
Jeff
If you have a loss in pressure when you do this, but don't find an external leak, it is most likely the LIM gasket.
He found that he has an external leak.
Ok thank you all again for your input! An update.
Just borrowed the coolant pressure tester and first thing I tested was the cap. The cap was so bad that I thought I was using the tool wrong. The cap wouldn't hold any pressure. The system, when full and cold pumped up to 16 psi very slowly lost pressure but I couldn't find a leak. As directed by the instructions which said this an internal leak I started the car and checked the oil for milkshake. Nothing. No smoke out the tail pipe or anything. Next I started the car as directed and seen if the system would shoot out gasses into the tester which would indicate a back flow. Nothing. Then I pumped up the system to 16 psi and watched for a vibrating hand which would indicate a compression issue. Nothing, the system slowly like very slowly lost pressure to about 9-10 psi and dropped even more slowly from there. Actually, the entire time I let the car run it never dropped below 9psi.
I checked out the price of the felpro and the valve cover gaskets (I need those right?) Not bad, 65 totalish. I forgot to ask about the front engine cover gasket.
Bought a new cap.
The blue devil I put in the oil over a month ago has seemed to stop not only my oil leak (I was putting quarts of oil in in every 2 days, now my oil is the same level) and i havnt seen any oil in the water like it used to be.
Still a LIM and front cover right?
Oh and my heater is working for some reason. I've also been idling for about 15 minutes, neither fan has come on and the obd says the temp is 206, no spiking just a slow build up
Ok I sat for another 10 minutes,the temp built up to 221. The fans never came on. I turned on max a/c and the fans came on, within maybe 2 minutes the temp dropped from 221 to 183. Still no leaks visible no puddles under the car.
You still don't know what it is, so I wouldn't start replacing parts all willy nilly. Find the leak first you stated earlier that you had coolant over the AC but weren't sure. You also stated previously that you had oil in the coolant so I would still suspect a LIM gasket.
Jeff
It definitely needs a lim gasket. Although, since I put that blue devil sealer in my oil a month and a half ago not only has my oil not been leaking but I havnt found any oil in the coolant in over a month.
Drove it for about 2 hours in traffic up hill with stops and shut offs. Never got higher than 217 till about the end of the 2 hours when it went kaput and began to over heat. Guess I lost my coolant through the overflow.
Just back flushed my heater core with first air then water. Filled the system up again Dr aired it weirdly I had the heater on full but no water was running through the heater core hose that goes into the firewall till I filled it, itself. Poured that blue devil radiator sealant into the rad and now I'm sitting for 45 minutes at idle.. so far the temp hasn't gone above 165ish.
that blue devil is the snizzle i tell ya. ive used it in the past.
trick is not to not change the coolant. and if and when you do add more blue devil or it will leak again.
I'm not a fan of any type of stop leak, if it does work it probably won't be for very long. I would start gathering the parts needed to do the LIM it's not very hard to do it will take just basic handtools and the gasket set, and a set of rocker bolts as I recall they were TTY. Remember that the intake and exhaust pushrods are different lengths so keep track of where they go.
Jeff
3100 is a nightmare lim job. and it needs head gaskets likely too. i dont blame him one bit for using the blue devil.
my heater still works great, my rad still flows free and ive got another engine in there now. all my cooling system is fine.
and it fixed my issue with my old engine. if not for a chipped piston, it would still be in use.
I guess I tried a bunch of them as a kid and none of them ever worked. I guess that's why I'm leary of using something like that as a fix. Can't say I ever used Blue Devil but I have done a bunch of 3.1-3.4 LIM jobs and it's not that bad. It's easier than pulling heads just to see if you might have a chipped piston on the 3.8.. Lol.
Jeff
i took took a few spins with the likes of bars stop leak, wow what crap, so i was skeptical for sure going in as a bottle of blue devil cost about 60 bucks.
but ill be damned, stuff works.
I tried that one and people swore by that and it never worked, tried a few others as well and guess I'm just skeptical. Having a father as an aircraft mechanic doesn't help either. Hope I never need to try any of that but I'll keep it in mind for sure. It better work for $60 though.
Jeff
i bet you hid all this from dad. im sure he'd be all i dont know you lol