cutlass1991 Posted October 10, 2008 Report Share Posted October 10, 2008 Hi guys, been a while since I posted here, hope everyone is doing well. I've got a 97 CS 3100 (L82) with 173K miles. It started leaking coolant about a month ago, and at the same time the idle got really rough. Then an SES light came on for the 02 sensor. Put in two new 02 sensors, light is out now, and I am left with the coolant leak/rough idle. I am thinking now the rough idle may be unrelated to the leak, because the Lower engine mount appears to be shot and if I put the car in park, get out and push the car back and fourth, I can see the motor bouncing back and fourth, being held only by the dogbones. so maybe not so much a rough idle as just a vibration from a bad mount. anyway, back to the leak: I can smell coolant outside the car after driving. I looked under a few times and saw coolant dripping off of the transmission pan. I thought it was tranny fluid at first, but then the low coolant light came on and the smell was unmistakable.I was adding coolant about 1 liter every 200 miles or so. I did a lot of searching, saw that there was some fluid around the usual trouble spots (oil pump o-ring, LIM gasket,) so i decided to change the LIM gasket. I have it apart right now, and I am waiting to put it back together. Here is why: 1. I don't think the leak is coming from the LIM only, because I noticed a bunch of white drop marks on the exhaust downpipe, and directly above it are the two hoses that go into the heater core. 2. The coolant was flushed about 2 years ago, and when I drained it now, it definitely looks brownish, too brown in my opinion. I let it sit in the pan for a day and now I can see some white swirls on the top of the fluid as well. is this normal for the coolant to turn brown? 3. Thinking back, I do remember the oil light coming on a few times in the past year, usually this only happened when I ran 4-5K miles between oil changes, and it was down a quart. I attributed this to oil being burnt over time, but maybe it was going into the coolant instead?? From what I understand, coolant usually gets into oil, but not oil into the coolant when the LIM gasket goes bad. Is that right? Could this be transmission fluid in the coolant instead of oil? I changed(not flushed) the tranny fluid at 150K miles. The transmission fluid color, smell, and level seem fine to me. I have noticed that the car does run a little hotter than normal, and that it does warm up pretty fast(have heat in about 3 minutes.) But that may just be something I never noticed until now. I guess my question is, do I want to replace the radiator, the heater core, the head gaskets, or will the LIM gasket replacement solve this issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 11, 2008 Report Share Posted October 11, 2008 change your oil after the gasket change. coolant is likely in there. did you get a new upper manifold? how did the old one look? the drips on the rear mani could just be a leaky heater hose. no way trans fluid is up in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Andrew, I don't think the 3100's need a new intake manifold, just some gaskets. The only way transmission fluid could possibly get into your coolant is if you had a transmission cooler built into the radiator, which I highly doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 The only way transmission fluid could possibly get into your coolant is if you had a transmission cooler built into the radiator, which I highly doubt. you just owned your self!!! there is transmission cooler in the radiator! I have experienced a internal failure of the internal radiator transmission cooler in my 92 lumina. basically it was bleeding into the radiator and appeared as an oily froth at the radiator cap. eventually it became apparent that it was red and therefore transmission fluid and not oil. if you check your rad cap and it is not oily it is somewhere else. the intake doesn't need replaced unless physically damaged. (I had to replace one) get the PERMADRY FEL-PRO gaskets and do the intake seal asap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 The only way transmission fluid could possibly get into your coolant is if you had a transmission cooler built into the radiator, which I highly doubt. you just owned your self!!! there is transmission cooler in the radiator! I have experienced a internal failure of the internal radiator transmission cooler in my 92 lumina. basically it was bleeding into the radiator and appeared as an oily froth at the radiator cap. eventually it became apparent that it was red and therefore transmission fluid and not oil. if you check your rad cap and it is not oily it is somewhere else. the intake doesn't need replaced unless physically damaged. (I had to replace one) get the PERMADRY FEL-PRO gaskets and do the intake seal asap. IIRC, not all cars got transmission coolers in the radiators, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spilly Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Mine does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Just going over some old posts, there are 1st gen W's that did not have a transmission cooler in the stock radiator. So Ken, my post still stands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Fury Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 All my cars have had it... not sure about the ford tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spilly Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 My Ford Tempo had an factory external cooler. When I did the radiator on my buddies '90 Cutlass Ciera Iron Duke car, even that had a tranny cooler lines into the rad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Just going over some old posts, there are 1st gen W's that did not have a transmission cooler in the stock radiator. So Ken, my post still stands. technically you are correct.... but I wasn't referring to MANUAL TRANSMISSION CARS. I am unsure of whether those cars would have a radiator with a unused and sealed tranny cooler or not.... some W's have both the rad and external coolers, such as your TGP and the 91-93 DOHC and some 91-93 3800 cars, as well as a few internationals with the 3.1mpfi! p.s. do you have a specific example of a car that didnt' have one??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Just going over some old posts, there are 1st gen W's that did not have a transmission cooler in the stock radiator. So Ken, my post still stands. technically you are correct.... but I wasn't referring to MANUAL TRANSMISSION CARS. I am unsure of whether those cars would have a radiator with a unused and sealed tranny cooler or not.... some W's have both the rad and external coolers, such as your TGP and the 91-93 DOHC and some 91-93 3800 cars, as well as a few internationals with the 3.1mpfi! p.s. do you have a specific example of a car that didnt' have one??? I was just searching through older posts on this forum about it, because I remembered that a few members saying that they didn't have a stock transmission cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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