Intake Gasket and why you should do it yourself

01OhioAlero · 02-12-2015, 10:07 AM

When I did my HG I didn't have time to finish it so I payed a "mechanic" to do it. This guy works at Midas so hes a genius apparently. I have noticed my car slowly loosing coolant but oil is milky so I let it go. But today the temp gauge started going up, cold heat, and no coolant. Turn it off and popped the hood. Gasket crapped on me and leaked all over the transmission. It seems to be mostly external. Now the best part is, this guy rtv THE WHOLE GASKET. All around the limg is all rtv'ed I think that's why caused it to go bad again. So I guess now is the time for the ported upper so I can use my Lx9 TB. I can post a picture of the intake later today.

zzyzzx · 02-12-2015, 01:12 PM

How much did you pay the mechanic?

Papa Rad17 · 02-13-2015, 08:51 AM

Prime example of why I don't let people work on my car. Or when they do, why I am there. Late last year I had to have a dealer drill out my caliper bracket bolts, they didn't like that I watched him like a hawk but I'm glad I did. The second I walked away (him just putting wheels back on) shit went wrong. I find out a month later I had been at risk of loosing a wheel going down the road, 3 lugs were hand tight.

01OhioAlero · 02-13-2015, 01:14 PM

Well this is lovely...What an idiot. Im 17 and I know to only put rtv in the valleys.

And Im pretty sure my Radiator is shot to..This car is a lemon I swear. Smoke coming from by rad and the fans are covered in coolant and its on the ground. I didn't let it over heat, just let it go up between 3/4 and 1/2 before I shut it off. I guess now I pressure test and if its rad, i might just part it out. I had no control over what happened but we gave him limg gasket set, new ported lower intake from Ben and told him take old one off and put new one on. He did the opposite, then we had to buy another limg set and he called us and said its done, Go there its miss-firing, can barely run. I paid my friend to tow it home and we found out he didn't plug in injector #3 and #4 and #1 were switched. Fixed that and its been good since now. We paid him 200$ for absolutely nothing.

cavedewler · 02-13-2015, 09:05 PM

take it back and call him an idiot! lol

rustyballs_69 · 02-13-2015, 11:37 PM

I would make what the shop pay for any damages. Go in and tell them its their fault and you want it fixed on their dime. If they don't want to do anything ask for their corporate number.

Nas Escobar · 02-14-2015, 03:21 PM

Damn man, this sucks.

This is why I do as much as I can on my cars. The only thing I can't do in my Cutlass is the Alternator because it requires messing with the transaxle. Other than that, I've done mostly everything myself.

03Alerosil · 02-14-2015, 07:11 PM

That sucks dude. RTV has it's uses but that's not one of them. Gotta love horseshit mechanics. Makes ya wonder what kinda repairs Midas does

sleepyalero · 02-14-2015, 07:59 PM

Midas and mieneke are not good places to get cars fixed. They wanted to charge me 90$ for a 3 min weld job to fix a leak in my exhaust, i told em to fk themselves.

Im a mechanic myself at an autoshop, just me my boss and a buddy work there. And ill have to say, we are the best mechanics around my area. We keep things to the T, make it look like the car never was touched. If it needs a carwash, we run it through mikes for the customer at no cost, dont mean to brag but we are top notch... We like to have 3 things there, the customer has to love us, trust us, and we have to give them a great product for whatever they come in for.

And we DO NOT sell things to the customer that it doesnt need. Ive seen many people try to sell sell sell on things a car doesnt need, just to hustle the customer. We dont do that, we are very honest with what the car needs.

01OhioAlero · 02-14-2015, 10:14 PM

Yeah its just combination of being 17 and parents wanting it done. I haven't done anything quite like it but I'm sure I would have been able to do it fine. Sleepy if I lived by you I would take my car there, it seems there's either the sketchy shops or the dealers that kill you in price, rare to find a in-between. Just gotta do it right this time, hope its not screwed up again.

sleepyalero · 02-14-2015, 10:45 PM

Yeah, i know. Its very hard to find a shop thats worth trusting, good mechanics are hard to come by nowadays.

Nas Escobar · 02-15-2015, 12:33 AM

Agreed. I've come to learn (the hard way) that you are your best mechanic. You're not gonna fk yourself over on parts, you're not gonna half ass a job since you depend on that car and you're not gonna give yourself the run around with the bullshit "it miiiigggghht be...." song and dance.

Now if I just had a lift, air tools and a welder, then I'd be set!

sleepyalero · 02-15-2015, 04:36 AM

Exactly.

jokerl90 · 02-15-2015, 09:02 AM

If you can find a good honest mechanic, treat him like gold! The one I use now, even if he does some little thing for me and not charge me, I make sure to, at least, give him enough to buy his lunch or something.
Years ago, in another area, was getting some work done on a company truck. As I walked to the office, a mechanic pulled me to the side and told me they were going to screw me on the repair. Took care of it while covering him.
Later the mechanic and his father opened a shop. They got the companies business as well as everyone who worked there.

zzyzzx · 02-16-2015, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nas Escobar

Agreed. I've come to learn (the hard way) that you are your best mechanic. You're not gonna fk yourself over on parts, you're not gonna half ass a job since you depend on that car and you're not gonna give yourself the run around with the bullshit "it miiiigggghht be...." song and dance.

Now if I just had a lift, air tools and a welder, then I'd be set!

I agree 100%, except I do have a welder and air tools.

Papa Rad17 · 02-16-2015, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

Yeah, i know. Its very hard to find a shop thats worth trusting, good mechanics are hard to come by nowadays.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nas Escobar

Agreed. I've come to learn (the hard way) that you are your best mechanic. You're not gonna fk yourself over on parts, you're not gonna half ass a job since you depend on that car and you're not gonna give yourself the run around with the bullshit "it miiiigggghht be...." song and dance.

Now if I just had a lift, air tools and a welder, then I'd be set!

couldnt have said it better

01OhioAlero · 02-16-2015, 11:46 PM

Got it all fixed up, they paid for it and surprisingly let me watch them put it on, I even made them do the WOT tq sequence for the ported intakes. Now another problem not related to that is some weird coolant issue I'm having. First I noticed my car wasn't really heating up, 10 minutes idling and the temp didn't move at all. And then the low coolant light came up. So I turn it off and pop hood, coolants all gone, none on ground. But the intake manifold is cold, so I let it run again and it just went from cold to a little over halfway in 30 secs, but no heat and it was still cold to the touch. Then I see smoking and its by the battery, below it. I turn it off and there's coolant all over the radiator fans. So I start it to show my grandpa, it never over heated, but I shut it off then I hear a dripping sound and coolant is just flooding out the bottom of the Radiator. I couldn't tell for sure cause it was -10 and I couldn't be out there long. I'm kinda stumped at what it could be. Cracked Rad would explain coolant lose, but I cant replicate it, and the no heat I'm confused about. Any ideas?

3800l67gam · 02-17-2015, 12:43 AM

You have a bad radiator? I have one for sale if needed!