Jon Boy Posted April 24, 2010 Report Share Posted April 24, 2010 My wife's 93 Buick Regal 3.8 has slowly been losing coolant for a while, and I've occasionally noticed some white smoke coming from the tailpipe. The other day I was checking the air filter and noticed a little bit of coolant in the intake housing and duct. Does this sound like a leaking intake manifold? I've never done one before, so I'm not sure what the symptoms are. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremerevolution Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 My wife's 93 Buick Regal 3.8 has slowly been losing coolant for a while, and I've occasionally noticed some white smoke coming from the tailpipe. The other day I was checking the air filter and noticed a little bit of coolant in the intake housing and duct. Does this sound like a leaking intake manifold? I've never done one before, so I'm not sure what the symptoms are. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Three possibilities. The least likely is a leaking LIM gasket, where reversion may push coolant back up into the intakes. The more likely is a leaking throttle body gasket. The most likely is a leaking upper intake manifold plenum o-ring at the throttle body coolant passages. I would personally replace the latter two and go from there. Its a very easy job and can be done in 30 minutes if you've done it before, or 2 hours if you haven't. Where are you located? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Boy Posted April 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2010 Thanks for the advice. It's a good thing I asked before I tore into the intake manifold. And I live a little ways south of Salt Lake City, Utah, so that's probably too far for you to come lend a hand. And I should've mentioned this earlier: for a while now we've been getting a little bit of oil in the coolant overflow tank. I thought it was probably tranny fluid leaking from the cooler in the radiator, so I replaced it with one from a junker, along with the hoses and thermostat. It looks like there's still a little bit of oil in the tank, but I don't know if it's new stuff leaking in or old stuff working its way into the tank. I don't know if that's in any way connected, but I suppose if there's oil in the coolant, it could be degrading the gaskets or o-rings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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