Sunrise_Racer_20 Posted June 11, 2003 Report Share Posted June 11, 2003 Anyone who knows anything about the 3.1 litre or any other GM v-6 for that matter knows about the coolant fill procedure nightmare, well i've done this 100 times at least and as i was bleeding the system this time i found that i just could not get air out of the system!!! no matter what i did the top half of the motor stayed dry...so after about 5 minutes of trying to bleed the system the motor begins to crap out...the gauge read fine, but i run and kill it and it hasn't started after that, so i take off the oil fill cap, fearing the worst....and i see a milky white substance in the valve train....oh crap...water in the motor, time for a tear down...i drain the oil and i get a sh!t load of coolant out of the crankcase, so i take off the airbox (which was filled with coolant), the IM and the intake plenum, now upon inspection of the intake plenum gasket i find that it is in kinda bad shape, but after a little research i find out that this is GM's second attempt at a "fail-safe" gasket, and it looks like it will sandwich and seal properly when installed, even if damaged....now my question is when i pull the heads off should i expect to see a blown head gasket set or what?...i took all the plugs off and ran a compression test on the coolant system and came up with nothing...and the plugs weren't wet or corroded at all!!!...whats up? has ANYONE had this happen?!?!?! HELLLLLLLLP!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redfox340 Posted June 12, 2003 Report Share Posted June 12, 2003 Well, while trying to bleed you overheated the engine to where coolant got into oil system probably due to a crack head / block. If there's oil and frezze mixing in the radiator + coolant system you're got either a bad head gasket or again, a cracked head / block. Time to do some MAJOR teardown and replace gaskets, blown parts, etc. Since you're plugs aren't wet, the piston rings are still doing it's job keeping oil consumption / blow-by to a minimal value. Sorry man, but you in for a treat of long hours un-bolting over a hood. - RedFox340 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted June 12, 2003 Report Share Posted June 12, 2003 yes my friend's 3.1 did the same thing where the air never left the system, kept re-entering, engine kept spiking up in temp. No water in the oil though....bad head gasket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise_Racer_20 Posted June 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2003 do you think the plenum gasket had anything to do with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddflash Posted June 13, 2003 Report Share Posted June 13, 2003 The upper plenum gasket shouldn't have anything to do with that as no coolant passes through there. I agree with the others. You overheated your engine and have atleast a bad headgasket, or worse cracked head/s or block. Sorry man but you're in for a lot of under hood work and some money too, hope it's not too bad. It can be tricky to find cracks, you might have to clean the heads, etc to see it. The head gasket should give you a good idea of where the problem is. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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