briandors Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 My 95 3.1 with 150k miles is showing coolant in oil after a used oil analysis. Not much yet, so I want to get it fixed before damage happens. How can I be 100% sure it isn't the head gasket though?? I've read on here and lots of other forums and it seems like it's almost always the intake, but it would stink to get that deep and then not fix the actual problem. How can one tell them apart? I don't see any coolant in oil (not yet anyway, the lab shows it though). No oil in coolant that I can see. I don't see any external leaks of coolant. No hissing or steam. Thanks. Brian Dors 95 Cutlass Supreme Convertible 3.1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Well, you can test your intake gaskets by spraying carb cleaner where the lower intake meets at the heads while the vehicle is running. If the idle fluctuates, you know those gaskets are bad. Just be sure to spray at different points around the lower intake manifold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWeb80 Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 also, when My head gasket went, I had bubble bubbling up into my coolant reservoir....so watch that too.....I knew they were exaust bubbles because I could smell the exaust...... a week later, woooosh, the gasket gave and the exaust pushed all the coolant into the reservoir and all over the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Well, you can test your intake gaskets by spraying carb cleaner where the lower intake meets at the heads while the vehicle is running. If the idle fluctuates, you know those gaskets are bad. Just be sure to spray at different points around the lower intake manifold. I don't think this would really test it at all. My LIM gaskets were toast, but only the coolant passages. That's the trouble area on the 3x00 gaskets. The area of the gasket for the air ports looked just fine... I thought the carb-cleaner trick was more to detect vacuum leaks with older MPFI engines that have cork gaskets?? My advice- buy all the gaskets you need, but don't open the HG just yet. When you get down to the lower intake, you WILL KNOW if they are toast. Mine were all seperated where the gasket seals to the coolant passage, and it goes into the oil. It's really easy to tell... Once you've established if the HG are probably ok, then just return the gaskets.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compu_85 Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Do these cars have an oil cooler? -Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cutlass Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Do these cars have an oil cooler? -Jason Yes, depending on the model it's built into the radiator with the tranny cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SigEpCutlass Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Well, you can test your intake gaskets by spraying carb cleaner where the lower intake meets at the heads while the vehicle is running. If the idle fluctuates, you know those gaskets are bad. Just be sure to spray at different points around the lower intake manifold. I don't think this would really test it at all. My LIM gaskets were toast, but only the coolant passages. That's the trouble area on the 3x00 gaskets. The area of the gasket for the air ports looked just fine... I thought the carb-cleaner trick was more to detect vacuum leaks with older MPFI engines that have cork gaskets?? My advice- buy all the gaskets you need, but don't open the HG just yet. When you get down to the lower intake, you WILL KNOW if they are toast. Mine were all seperated where the gasket seals to the coolant passage, and it goes into the oil. It's really easy to tell... Once you've established if the HG are probably ok, then just return the gaskets.. I would do as Dave has advised you with the Intake Gaskets. The 3x00 engines are very dependable. Most of the time if they die, it's a result of coolant damaging the internals from an intake gasket leak. I would park the car immediately and not drive it any more if you are not sure how bad the leak is. Your best bet it to replace those gaskets ASAP! Do these cars have an oil cooler? -Jason Yes, depending on the model it's built into the radiator with the tranny cooler. Yes, that is correct. IIRC, other than cars equipped with a turbo 3.1 (LG5) or 3.4 (LQ1), no other w-bodies had one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Well, you can test your intake gaskets by spraying carb cleaner where the lower intake meets at the heads while the vehicle is running. If the idle fluctuates, you know those gaskets are bad. Just be sure to spray at different points around the lower intake manifold. I don't think this would really test it at all. My LIM gaskets were toast, but only the coolant passages. That's the trouble area on the 3x00 gaskets. The area of the gasket for the air ports looked just fine... I thought the carb-cleaner trick was more to detect vacuum leaks with older MPFI engines that have cork gaskets?? You can use the same trick to test intake gaskets, but that is also depending on where they have gone bad at. In your case, no the carb cleaner test wouldn't have worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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