All GM-V engines look!
 

Haha - here is your complementary blown lower intake gasket! Both coolant passage gaskets are gone - and the lady kept on just adding coolant. She thought it was "normal."

Every GM V-style engine does this. My 1989 3.1 did it and this is from a 2000 3.4 Venture with only 60,xxx miles on it. Please - I urge you - if you have to add coolant/notice the coolant is getting low find out where it's leaking ASAP!! This engine WILL have to be replaced now due to the coolant mixing with the oil.

Happy driving...:yikes:

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ew..... :rolleyes:

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That oil turned into a nice froth! :yikes: Even if they just replaced the gaskets and changed the oil and flushed the cooling system that motors on borrowed time.

It's also very possible to hydro lock the engine if that got into the cylinders.

Last year 2 of our 3 Saturns (a 2000 SW2 with about 70k, and a 2002 SC2 with 40k) needed the intake gaskets replaced. We noticed every month we had to add coolant to them. The low coolant light would come on at several occasions.

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Makes me proud to drive a Ford :D

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Matt,
It would be cool to see some of the bearing surfaces if you get a chance to tear down. Camshaft and crank.
Thanks.

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Everything but the electrical problem inclined Focus eh? lol

As for the picture: intake gasket? Is that the head gasket?


Man.. I should really know more about cars at this stage in my life than I do, I have been around them for so long.

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If the head gasket was removed, which would mean the heads were also removed, then the cylinders and pistons would be visible.

With only the intake removed the push rods (top of photo) and rocker arms (bottom of photo) are visible. Also the intake passages (3 passages at top of photo) plus water passages (antifreeze visible) and oil return holes are showing.

and Matt, don't forget to retrieve your needle nose pliers from the motor! :D

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could also happen to a ford, well everyting does usually happen to fords anyway. :p

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^^HAHA^^ my gm is runnign strong with 187k miles on it

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How often did she add coolant, daily, weekly, or monthly?

Just curious, also how much coolant should be lost over time in a car?

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If you need to add fluids anytime you should find out where they went. In this case a quick check of the dipstick would have shown the color of the muck on top of the engine and it would have smelled like anti-freeze. Losing a few ounces over several months or year is not a lot. Over a couple of weeks is huge. Blown head gaskets manifest themselves in many ways, this is only one.

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I'd be dieing for a teardown also - but they just wanted to put in the intake gaskets and see what happens - and that got done - but guess what...

Due to Aluminum heads - ya' got a nicely warped head AND blown head gaskets (Due to overheating) The lady just wanted to save some $$ and not throw an engine at it - but we strongly recommend a Jasper engine or (lesser peferred) and good Junk Yard engine. She wants us to do the head gaskets now...so everything that I did has to come apart. Sometimes people love to beat around the bush...

When we replace the head gaskets - and it still isn't running right - than we will not to anymore work until she gets an engine - than i'll tear it down. I also really-really want to see the bearings too!!

(BTW - when was all said and done for the intake gaskets and started it - it had a nice knocking sound...and she still won't pay for an engine. She wants to put an engine in as a 'last resort.' Hey - fine by me, I still get paid how ever she wants... :rolleyes: )

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Knocking doesn't go away with a wish does it?!? What's it sound like to you, a cashed rod bearing or an oil pump?

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my god, that is disgusting. :ahh:

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glad i dont have that problem in my Trans Am, I havent lost a drop of coolant since i soldered the small hole in my radiator.

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Ya, thats just a bit blown :rolleyes:

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IMHO - it sounded like a main bearing knock.

We've finnaly made her choose the new engine. Still haven't gotten to it - but I do have an engine from a 96 (?) 3.1 with a rod thrown out the side of the BLOCK due to a lack of oiling. I will try to get pics of them ASAP!

Geeze - For the past few months - GM has kept our garage quite busy..:D

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so i thought this had happened to me. I drive a 94 Buick lesabre and just recently i started loosing anti-freeze, while the little i had left was a very brown color. Upon inspection i saw both antifreeze and oil on top of the engine bock in between the rocker covers and the intake manifold. I suspected i had a bad head gasket. I took it in and all it turned out to be was the hose with a male adapter that brings coolant into the block was broken at the block(it was made of plastic). so all in all 2 hrs of labor and a 15 dollar part got me up and going again.



Matt do you know anything about transmission noise? It sounds like my auto transmission is slipping every time it goes from 3 to 4th. I am guessing that the solenoid isn't doing it's job, any insight?

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Wow, that is an absolutly disgusting image, I can't believe the woman thought it was normal! At the very least she should have noticed the change in fluid needs! The fact that the engine does that stock is more disturbing, just get a Toyota! You can cram over 30 psi of boost into the 2JZ-GTE Supra motor with little trouble, and if a stock toyota motor or brakes die, then something is seriously wrong with the owners driving. Makes me happy that my entire family (I'm not kidding) drives Japanese cars.

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well sure a supra... kinda a difference in price tho. and that was their main performance car at the time wasnt it? not exactly a venture.
and then again the amount of boost it can handle stock isnt what proves a reliable engine anyways

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You have a point about the supra, my fault for a bad example. However, I have never heard of a really unreliable Japanese car (within reason).

I disagree, if an engine is robust enough to deal with nearly tripling the stock power without problems during normal driving, then that enginge must be very stong. Racecar engines take nutty RPMs and/or make nutty power, but if you took one, and brought it to street spec powerwise keeping the same mechanical components it'd be untochable. This is basically the same idea.

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ever hear all the problems with the mitsubishi trucks all burning down and such?


define 'normal driving'... the ford rs200 had a relatively small displacement but a massive output. except i think i heard it only got about 10 hours of "spirited" driving till well....... the engine became junk. but then again for "normal" driving im sure it woulda been fine. it handles fine, accelerates only as much as you push the throttle, and brakes well. im sure it woulda been great for emergencies.
your "racecar" engine example... explain street spec for me please. do you mean to actually make emissions?
and well those "racecar" engines are built with a very different budget.. the other "racecars" going to the local tracks (well not all but..) arent going to be like that.
and as for tripling the stock power.... well most engines cant triple it without a bit of work i would think... sticking on a blower or turbo by itself isnt going to magically triple it. well obviously you need to beefen up everything.
and i dunno if this is a good example but well compare a big block american motor. and then a civic's 2.0l . tripleing the output is gonna be a LOT harder for the big block.
oh and i have no idea if this is true but the story ive heard about why there are no skylines sold in america is because nissan didnt want to detune it that much, just to pass emissions?
and um uh,,, lost my train of thought.... um.. i hope some car people take my side and help my arguement.. i might be needing help soon! :p

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Race car engines are torn down and rebuilt or replaced between races. Due to the fact they're run so close to thier limits they take heavy wear and most, if not all, teams won't take the chance of something happening to the motor.
There are still plenty of these "fresh" motors that blow though. Just watch a few races and you'll see that not every car makes it to the end.

GM, Ford, and Chrysler made some real good motors and still are. Tripling the boost and seeing if an engine can handle it isn't a true test of robustness. Sure it may run without any problems but hows it going to be holding up after 70k miles? That motor may only last for 90k with the boost but if it was still stock it may last for 180k.

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Ever hear of the Prius??? At least it was one of those times where it was good to blame to problem on programing but still.

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Let us not forget the Mitsubishi engines that were used in Dodge minivans for a while. In an attempt to make a light, powerful, V6 in a small package, something had to give. The designers left out a main bearing that provided stability to the crankshaft. As the engine aged, the crank would wobble back and forth until it finally wore itself through one end of the engine. I know of several owners who lost one of those engines. One on the first leg of a three week driving vacation with the family. How do you recover from that? No car, no vacation and far from home.
Errors creep in to designs everywhere including Detroit and Japan.
Racing engines add more bearings than normal "street" vehicles and balance like crazy to minimize vibration so that RPMs can be maximized. I'll let someone who knows chime in here, but I believe a Formula 1 Ford engine tops out over 10,000 RPM without shaking itself apart, while street vehicles are designed to run at less than half that.

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dont know about ford f1s but yes i know they do go over 10,000rpms. or at least used to. i dunno about recently.
and less than half is definitly not true. my truck engine rdlines at 5000. truck engines are most of the time timed so it has more torque in the low end rather than pull high rpms. some cars go 7000,8000 on the street. a bit of modifications and higher.

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9,000 on a S2000 or RX-8. The point I was making was that, while a race engine is unreliable at it's unreal specific output, when you drop RPMs or boost off of it it becomes very reliable. Take the Cosworth XF, at 16,800 rpms and making 900 hp it was really unreliable, the XFE does 12,000 rpms and makes 750 hp. It was the same engine minus some of the more pricey and persnikety parts. The engines were unbreakable by the previous standards. Doing this down tuning was what I meant by going to street spec.

Okay I was too general about Japenese cars, but my aunt has a first gen Prius and she has no troubles. As for the trucks, I wouldn't know since I've never driven nor known anybody well that drove one. The rs200 was a while ago, look at the Evos and STi they are similar.

900hp
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The reliability clearly goes down, but that it doesn't immediately die proves that it is over built stock. Although the American cars have made reliable engines, they are also much lower tech. So, the fact that Japanese engines have more parts to fail and still work is just fine.

However haven't we strayed from the topic of this blown engine? Yes, I know I caused it, sorry. I have a question about the GM-V engine, is there a specific aspect of this engine that causes this issue?

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you just reminded me.. all the rotary motors. not too relaiable. they are a 'high maintainance motor. espescially those turbo ones. and they are japanese. i love those FCs but as a dailydriver i would not want one... even if it was n/a i think my stock s10 motor will outlast it (in the sense of will keep running until it stops completely without any repairs)

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Yeah, rotary enginges are funny beasts. You'd think that they would be stonger and more reliable, since they have less moving parts. Apparently if they run forever if naturally aspirated, but when that turbo comes along BAM! Apex seals just die. I've always wondered why Mazda (owned by Ford now) chose to turbocharge the 13B two rotor Wankel in the RX-7 instead of using a 20B three rotor Wankel. The major issue with rotaries is their immense volume and temperature of exhaust and massive fuel consumption, but for their size and displacement it's hard to beat without exotic tech or a gas turbine.

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Upper and lower manifold leaks are VERY common on Gm 60 degree V6 engines 3100 and 3400 series engines. it is one of the most frequent problems i here about. (at least in n-bodys)

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Speaking of Fords, my 2000 Mercury (FORD) Sable with 103,000m is in the shop for a blown head gasket, and upon removal of the heads, both of them were supposedly found to be cracked.

A few weeks ago it started going clankety clank at start up and then a few minutes after driving it would stop.
It had been setting the check engine light off since 100,000m.
Check engine read out revealed several times: misfire cylinder 1
After the check engine light was reset, it would some times would take a week to come back on or just a few hours.

I replaced wires and spark plugs, still did not solve problems.

It had been eating coolant practically since I purchased it a little over seven months ago. During those seven months it probably went through 2-3 jugs of coolant. I figured I just had a very small leak somewhere, now I know the problem was more serious.

It ran like a champion until the check engine light started coming on. When the check engine light was on it just seemed to shake a little bit, which I just figured was the misfiring problem.

I have never over heated the engine and now I think the seller of the car knew that something was wrong... :mad:

As time went on, it also seemed to progressively use up more coolant.

So I am now expecting a gigantic repair bill.