Have just pulled the top off my daughters 3.8. It was recently cooked, courtesy of a blown top hose, the day after the water pump was replaced. So pleased. Anyway, it was pumping oil into the coolant. I assumed that a cracked head or block were the likely culprits. When I pulled it down, I noticed that the intake manifold bolts had almost zero torque. When I removed the intake I noticed large amounts of emulsified oil around the water galleries adjacent to the oil transfer port, and definite signs of oil transfer across the gasket. Could I be this lucky? Could this be the only problem? Is this a common problem? Comments appreciated.
if its been cooked then it is possible that only the manifold gasket is frooted...they are pretty cheap and easy to replace too...just make sure everything is spotless and scuffed up before you put the new gaskets back on. then you can pressure test the cooling system and then pressurise the cylinders 1 by 1 and check for bubbles in the radiator
Thanks for that. Really don't want to pull the heads if I don't have to. Sort of opens a can of worms best left closed. Would it be worth re-torquing the heads? Might throw some stem seals at it too as there seems to be some sign of blowby, (oily carbon in the top of the intake?). Are the O rings on the manifolds re-useable, or should I replace?
thats pretty standard on the v6, carbon/oil is from the pcv system if its not blowing smoke i wouldnt bother with the valve stem seals, drop off an exhaust manifold and check the exhaust ports, if they are clean then theres been coolant being burnt in the combustion chamber and steam cleaning your ports then you can pull the heads off and get them checked:thumbsup:
i read that Holden uses crappy head gaskets .... when the motor gets cooked the gaskets melt .... i seen somewhere ( think it was on Ebay) that you can buy good quality head gaskets from USA that actually can be used again ...
Be carful when filling this engings up with coolent in it is a 3.8. they do need to have the coolent system bleed not doing this can cauce them to cook the engine. Another helpfull mod is to modify the coolent temp switch for the raditor fan so that it willcome on at 82 degrees insted of the standard 100 or there abouts
I was thinking how to go about doing that just the other day. Do you have to re-wire the cooling fan to do that?
