wildbill Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 ok i guess its time for me to jump on the LIM replacement bandwagon. so last night i was in the drivethru at taco hell and i noticed i could see my exhaust in my mirror. its only 45 degrees outside, i shouldn't be able to see the exhaust unless something is wrong. I go straight home and check my fluids: oil was a quart low! wtf!! coolant was fine, however it was orangish color, i thought it was supposed to be green. ??? this morning it is offical, smoke is still coming out of the tailpipes and smells sweet. last night i decided to not go out and stayed in and read over 13 pages in this forum and believe it is the LIM. my question is how many shop hours are required? should i tackle this myself or bring to the dealer and get raped? anyone have a close figure on how much this will cost me if i do it and a close figure on how much the dealer will cost me? 2002 grand prix gt 3800 series II 43,000 miles since i bought it at 38,000 i have been using sythetic, even though i highly doubt it, could this possibly cause a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpchris Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 LIM gaskets are SOOOOOOOOO easy on a 3.8. Any moron could do it. And some coolant is orange some is green. And sometimes green turns orange. You need to find out what kind of coolant is in your car. Shops will charge $300-$500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron350 Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 You need to drain the oil and coolant as soon as possible. The longer you leave it in the greater the chance of the acids in the oil eating the bearings. You need to look at this. http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/kb.php?mode=article&k=38 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremerevolution Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 LIM gaskets are SOOOOOOOOO easy on a 3.8. Any moron could do it. And some coolant is orange some is green. And sometimes green turns orange. You need to find out what kind of coolant is in your car. Shops will charge $300-$500. Is it really that easy? (on a S1 3.8?) I looked at it and kinda went "uh oh" when I saw how much shit I had to take off to get under there. I might do it myself, or might take it in somewhere to get it done. I'm still deciding... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 you have dexcool, therefore it is orange. you may have an upper plenum failure, that is more common, especially on a low mileage car like yours. on a scale of 1-5, this ranks a 2 on my difficulty list. its not that bad. here's a link to my thread from April about the same issue. make sure you get the metal frame LIM gaskets if you have to replace them. http://www.w-body.com/forum/index.php/topic,56428.0.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick1234 Posted September 15, 2007 Report Share Posted September 15, 2007 i just just just did mine. it took a while for me cause i had to clean everything, first time working on a 3.8, plugs and wires wouldn't come out, and coolant elbows are a bitch at first. if you have any questions let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCGUY112887 Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 Why are you so sure your lower intake is leaking? The huge lower intake problem happened on 3100/3400 engines, not the 3800. I HIGHLY doubt you have any sort of major leak with 43k miles. If synthetic was causing things to leak, your car would drip some oil and that is about it. I learned that by putting Mobil 1 in a 120k engine. Seeing exhaust is totally normal, it's about 55 here and I can see many peoples exhaust. It's not huge clouds of smoke, just bits here and there, enough to see float up into your mirror. Do yourself a favor and add oil and keep driving. DO NOT GO TAKING YOUR ENGINE APART! If coolant really was being burned and the exhaust smelled sweet, then your coolant overflow tank would be going empty fast. Put something under your car when you park to see if you are dripping any oil, that may be where your quart went. Even if you somehow did have a leak, oil in the coolant isn't THAT bad... it won't hurt much unless tons is going into it. Even then it wouldn't be a major failure, just flush the system and it would be fine. Coolant in the oil is what causes people problems, easy way to tell is to pop open your oil cap and look in with a flashlight. If it looks like someone dumped a milkshake in there, that's coolant in your oil. Again just a recap, add some oil and check all fluids again and keep driving. Please don't worry yourself, I think you are jumping to many many conclusions. Edit - Oh and yes your coolant is supposed to be orange. Many if not all GM cars after 94 or so use Dexcool. And gpchris if green antifreeze is turning orange, you may have a serious problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpchris Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 What i was thinking, with that low mileage its not likely to have a bad LIM however i've seen it happen many times. Also green coolant changing to orange is very common. Its usually when you have cooling system problems but it is pretty common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BXX Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 the 3800's have problems with cracking the intake plenum.. its very common and any reputable parts store stocks it. Dorman makes the redesign that you would want. It reinforces the failure prone OE areas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted September 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 well I'm not positive that the LIM has failed. The coolant level is perfect at the hot mark when hot and the cold mark when cold. It's not leaking a drop of anything, I park in the same spot in my driveway every day. The gauges read normal and the underside of the oil cap is normal. I should have stated that in the original post. Those were the first things I checked. My exhaust is still white so I thought that I am burning coolant. I believe it is the LIM because of all the previous posts I read up on. I prolly won't tear apart the motor yet, I just hate it when something is wrong and I am not 100% sure what it is. I have completely torn down 3.1 and 3100 and 5.7. But I have not done anything to a 3800 yet. I'm sure they are similar. thanks guys any advice is appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpchris Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 3100 is 5 times harder than a 3.8, they were made for convenience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted September 16, 2007 Report Share Posted September 16, 2007 the 3800's have problems with cracking the intake plenum.. its very common and any reputable parts store stocks it. Dorman makes the redesign that you would want. It reinforces the failure prone OE areas... Actually... the APN UIM kit is better. It comes with a sleeve to cover the EGR tubing, plus re-inforces just as the Dorman does. I've only noticed with my 3800, that finally over a 10k mile period that the coolant level has dropped ever so slightly. I only get white exhaust every once in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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