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Full Version: 3800 series v6 small leak 1997
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97bird1002
Alright well I have a 97 3800 v-6 firebird with about 134,000 miles. When I bought the car it had oil in the water, I expected water would be in oil but was not, so I went ahead and flushed system, new radiator was due, so i replaced it, new hoses, new thermostat, & houseing, only cause i busted the original one trying to put a paper gasket on (boy did we feel dumb after lookin in service manual and seeing only a rubber gasket). anyway only about 6,000 miles after all this I noticed oil was back in the water again. I continued to drive it for a while as is my daily driver. Now I noticed coolant was puddling up on the drivers side of the motor in the first two pockets on the lower intake manifold just under the mount for the coil pack, and above the valve cover. We cleaned the motor and put some baby powder on and cranked it from a cold start. There are two bolts in each of these pockets on the right side of the motor when looking from the front, one lower and one just above that and kinda to the side. u cant get any wrench on the lower ones without removing the fuel rails, we fashioned a tool and all bolts were pretty snug before we started it. While the car had only been running for probably 2 mins, The thermostat was still at 100, we could see coolant leaking out of the two lower bolts in each pocket, the second one considerably more than the first pocket. has anyone seen this before?
Or could this be a sign of a major problem;( , any suggestions?

We are thinking about just running some stop leak thru it to see if that will help seal the leak up but I don know, I kinda want to fix it right but that means a lot of work I would have to tear the top end of the motor down.
as always, THANKS for ANY comments.
Me Too
Stop Leak, might do it, but I doubt it. It will probably break down on the very first hot day the car is driven. I think the best repair is the hard one...remove the top half of the engine and replace the head gaskets and the intake manifold gaskets. Also, be sure to retap the threads in the heads and block and clean the bolt threads to get an accurate torque. I believe that the V6 also requires that thread sealing compound be used for both the head and intake manifold bolts.

While the heads are off, why not have some fun? Have a good shop do a 3 angle valve job and some minor porting, polishing and port matching. It would make an extra 15-20 hp...that's an increase you can feel. At the very least, give the engine a 3 angle valve job and set the valve spring pressure to factory specs. After that many miles, the engine will give a sigh of relief just to breathe properly again. Nope, you don't have to do piston rings when a valve job is done.
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