White92Cutlass Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 1993 Cutlass Supreme Convertible. 161,000 miles, 3.1 liter. Losing antifreeze with no visible leak. Some oil drops in antifreeze, no antifreeze in the oil. Light white smoke at start-up, recently failed catalytic converter. Guessing I've got a blown intake or head gasket. Sound about right? If so, two shops have quoted me $1,200- which means I will likely be going the K & W block sealer route. Quote
GOT2B GM Posted April 26, 2011 Report Posted April 26, 2011 Could also be the trans cooler inside the rad is leaking trans fluid into the coolant..... but because its burning off coolant its likely head gaskets on a 3.1 MPFI Quote
White92Cutlass Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Posted April 26, 2011 It's a factory installed 3.1- not the 3100. Quote
johnny404 Posted April 26, 2011 Report Posted April 26, 2011 check lower intake first it could suck oil into a coolant passage through the gasket and make the situation you have also you should be paying about 7-800 at most reputable shops not 1200 but if its head gaskets expect to pay more like 1400 bt the time machine work and all is factored in(at least in the chicago area) Quote
Crazy K Posted April 28, 2011 Report Posted April 28, 2011 TRY THIS: take radiator cap, tear off the Inner spring seal. (hey, caps are cheap to replace) this will cause your car to not build coolant pressure and minimize leakage. If you do this and suddenly see lots of red fluid topping off your radiator, the internal transcooler has failed and you need a new radiator. Quote
White92Cutlass Posted May 3, 2011 Author Report Posted May 3, 2011 The Cutlass lives on! Went to Autozone last week and borrowed one of their engine block testers. Tested the radiator twice for exhaust fumes and the fluid didn't change color either time- so no blown gaskets! I took it to a shop and they were able to find two pinhole leaks in the heater core line area. They didn't find any oil or transmission fluid at this time and no light white smoke at start-up anymore. Gonna swap the heater core line from my 91 Cutlass and hopefully be on the road for a while longer. Thanks for the replies! Quote
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