Got this book.. 2 of em actually. Thanks!

 

sorry man, just trying to help out! personally those books kinda throw you in all different directions with the diagrams, someone on here has got to be able to help you out!!

 

Oh no doubt. It's all good ma'man. I've gotten lots of help on here so far. It's a great place to be.

Matter of fact, I'm reading the manual now and it says to remove a few things that aren't diagrammed well for the 3.4L engine. Like the heater pipe, which is also bolted underneath the throttle arm. Kinda sucks. I should find a book tomorrow specifically for 3.4L DOHC V6 engines.. I wonder if I can find one at the store without a special order...

 

Hi gang,
Ok here is what I got.

UPDATE: DETAIL PICTURES, MANIFOLD IS OFF!
I took the intake manifold off and saw the 2 plastic manifold gaskets that were sitting there.
The puddle of oil I saw is actually a bunch of oil and antifreeze that's sitting underneath the heads of the cylinder blocks. on both sides, right underneath the gaskets on each side.

On the front side towards the radiator, there was mostly all oil.
On the side towards the dash of the car, there was a mix of oil and antifreeze.
The gaskets actually looked pretty good except one of them.. the little seal inside one of the holes was half broken off. (See pictures for details)

Now what worries me is that those gaskets for each block are cracked which is why those puddles are sitting there.
My original post was about my engine overheating but now I believe this is going to have to be a complete engine rebuild.

But riddle me this,
Do you think those puddles underneath the manifold gaskets means that those headgaskets are indeed leaking? They would have to be, correct?
That means that those particular gaskets are going to solve my overheating issue and possibly my oil issue..

Here are some detailed pictures I took of what it looks like right now.
Please, comments and ideas are all welcome. I went this far.. I think I might just go all the way.

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks!
Johnnie

(Oil and Water) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2557/...0bae5119_b.jpg
(Just oil) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/...b8684a59_b.jpg
(The whole intake manifold underneath) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/...c0a33909_b.jpg
(Pic of rear cylinder block gasket) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/...d9e8615d_b.jpg
(The manifold Gaskets) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3483/...f16fe474_b.jpg

 

..Hi Johnnie, great detailed post with pictures. Hopefully one of our talented MCF Member:Tech Mechanic's will notice your post & post their thoughts/comments/suggestions for you...Be Patience, and it's Sunday, so keep checking back for member input...

Wish you good luck & a easy repair...

 

thanks KidSpace!
It's fun, believe it or not, to be working on this..
What's not fun is that I can't drive anywhere LOL

 

the gaskets, can you see a solid ring around the metal on all parts of the gasket?

Also form the picks it looks like the water could have come from when you took the intake off. but i was not there so ?

I don't see any broken or alarms in your so while your there spend a few hours on cleanup and polishing (roughing up the sealing surfaces) help promote a better seal.

 

Monte:
On the block, there were white rigid rings that surround the hole where the antfreeze coolant comes in where the gasket sits on. It's where the last ring on the gasket would be or the corrosive ones if you look at the pics.

There is nothing out of the ordinary on the actual gasket itself. If you can believe it, the manifold gaskets are made of a strong, oil based plastic. The replacement FelPro brand gaskets are also plastic... what's up with that?

It seemed that there was just a little bit of coolant within the spaces
before I took the manifold off. Yes, some antifreeze got inside when I took the manifold off but there already was some in it already. The seals on the manifold gasket had white all around the edges. I took it to autozone and they said that was normally due to a dex-cool and green antifreeze collaboration that quite possibly burned the seals through. I suppose that could be a valid case because I'm not running dex cool in this motor and that's what it was designed for.. should I go back to Dex Cool after I flush the system?

The rings on the outside of the manifold gaskets were all soft and fell apart. They were definitely trashed so I'm sure there was coolant going within those crevices.
The size of the puddle is relatively large inside.

If there are signs of oil being in there, (right by the cylinder head blocks where the headgaskets are located), does that generally mean that those gaskets are gone as well? This would mean the difference between putting the manifold back together or doing a complete engine overhaul...

 

not sure about the oil being in there could be splash from the lower end but as far as coolant i would go with the dex and stay that way, and they are right it was found that the orange coolant does not mix well with green cannot remember the issue but that was the first counseling i got from my boss when i did my first flush was putting green coolant in a orange coolant car.

 

Ok well let's look at these facts. Short and sweet..

Car would overheat when driving for 5-10 minutes. Boiling over antifreeze and radiator hose would "bang" after an hour.
Car would blow white smoke (not ridiculous amounts though)
Car would stall at times.
Low oil light would always be on and then go away after 10 minutes.
I would have to add at least a qt. of oil every two weeks.

Compression Test:
Each cylinder/spark plug was reading at 190-210.
Pulled off intake manifold, manifold gaskets were toast.
Little pools of oil sit underneath the cylinder heads under the manifold area.


A successful compression test would probably mean that there's really no issues with headgaskets in terms of pushing power. If the gaskets were faulty, my car would run like crap and the pressure would be low, correct?