Very boggy, burning through coolant

[clutch1]

My buddy's got a 97 Lumina with a 3100 in it. He told me that it had no power when he drives it lately, so I drove it, he's right. It feels like trying to accelerate in 5th gear, extremely boggy.

It's burning through coolant, has oily coolant in the reservoir, and is running quite hot. Sounds like LIMG gasket to me, on the most obvious note.

However, the engine also has a nice clicking or ticking noise... sounds like the valve train isn't getting oiled properly... would this happen because of the oil being thinned by the cooland? Bearings might be shot from thinned oil?

Seems to run kind of rough overall, so yea.


So yea, all signs point me to the LIMG being out, especially since it's the good old GM v6.. mmaybe head gaskets, eh. Does it sound like there's anything else that's going to be a large problem to fix... any ideas on why it's lacking power?

[CactusWill]

any ideas on why it's lacking power?


Might be the head gasket, not the manifold.

[Nate's Alero]

Might be the head gasket, not the manifold.

could be both


1.) Leak down test it

2.) Compression check it

3.) tear it apart and do all of them anyway...

[Blktrax]

could be both


1.) Leak down test it

2.) Compression check it

3.) tear it apart and do all of them anyway...

Seconded, without hearing its its hard to diagnose it, could be anything form a bad motor to something like a collapsed valve lifter. I had that issue after doing limg on my 3100 in the cutlass. Found some gunk broke loose and plugged one of the oil passesges to the lifters. But the coolant, gotta be limg or head gasket

[clutch1]

Ah, lack of power being the headgasket's fault makes sense... loosing compression between cylinders or something perhaps.
Plugged lifters makes sense.. that gooey oil might not let if pump up right... the clicking does go away after it warms up.

I'll go snag a cyl leak tester and compression tester before I tear into it.. now that you guys bring it up I bet we'll be seein some numbers pointing to the headgasket.

Good ideas, thanks.

[pimpalero2003]

Got the same thing as of last week oil is really thin and no power.
But my coolant resivor is full but there's no pressure in my coolant lines so dk

[clutch1]

Maybe there's just a headgasket leak between cylinders on yours.. not bad enough of a leak to let the fluids mix?

[zzyzzx]

I assume that they have stopped driving the car?

[Nate's Alero]

I assume that they have stopped driving the car?

if not.... there are some mental issues,

"hmm, my car seems to be eating coolant like candy, my oil level is rising, and is making cottage cheese in my block, everything's normal"

- my desc. of my alero's previous owner

[clutch1]

Yea, lol, the only time he drove it after the probs started happening was to show me what the issue was (before I realized that it had all the signs of a gasket being out).

[clutch1]

Did some tests today.. cyl 5 and 6 had super low compression.. did the teaspoon-of-oil-to-seal-the-rings trick on them and compression didn't increase any... looks like the heads are out too..

Well, wish me luck guys, gonna be my first ever complete teardown and rebuild.. hopefully no cracked blocks like on the last one I went to change.

[clutch1]

Well... so far so good basically. Teardown didn't have any big surprises or anything.

I'm on the very last bolt for the rear exhaust manifold then the rear head will come out... but it's being such a SOB. I think it'll be easier in the morning when I'm rested though. How exciting. Here's hoping it all goes back together.. at least mostly.. tomorrow!

Then coolant flush, wooo.

[Blktrax]

Pictures or it didnt happen.....

[Nate's Alero]

Pictures or it didnt happen.....

its not like its super difficult to tear down a 3.1 or a 3.4

ive done it enough :lol:

[clutch1]

Pictures or it didnt happen.....

Habeeb it.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/clutch1234/headgasket007.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/clutch1234/headgasket005.jpg

[Blktrax]

Thats some great head right there.

[clutch1]

Oh man it's all back together. Gonna change the oil and flush the coolant tomorrow... stand by for question about why it won't run. :lol:

[clutch1]

It runs. Omfg. Better than it did before. There's still a tick when it's cold.. not entirely sure why. There's still a bit of rough idle, too.

However, it doesn't overheat anymore, and has more power.. still not "normal" I don't think, but not as bad as before. There seems to be a bit of a shifting problem.. it doesn't like to down shift if you tromp on the gas, so it has a bit of an accel issue.

Overall, though, it's a success. It's a useable car again, my friend's happy, and aside from those quarks, it seems sound.

One question, what do you guys do with used coolant???