so about a couple weeks ago I parked my 2000 monte carlo SS. checked the fluids and everything was fine. went to go take it for a spin about 6 days ago luckily i checked the oil before I did and found a ton of coolant in the oil pan. so after replacing the engine oil, upper and lower intake gaskets, installed aluminum elbows for the intake and belt tensioner and some fresh spark plugs. Finished putting everything back together put the fresh oil in and fresh coolant and..... found oil/coolant mixture on the oil dipstick at the same level as before I drained the oil and fixed the gaskets. Would the coolant stick to my oil dipstick instead of draining out or did I get a bad set of gaskets? Because I did torque all the bolts down correctly and in sequence.

 

how it is sounding there is some thing else is more serious than what you have done. double check every thing first then do a leak down test. how many miles do you have on the engine? also how many times did you change the coolant did you use the generic coolant when you did the changes also did you replace the thermostat in it. it could have done some thing bad if it got stuck closer to shut. check every thing some one might chime in as well. if it is some thing major the good thing is 3800 engines are a dime a dozen you can pick one up cheap build it to your liking and put it in. but that is some thing extreme. First thing I would do after checking every thing is a pressure test to make sure it is nothing major like a bad head gasket or head or both.

 

well luckily it seems like it only confused me because I was working in partial darkness. After I checked fluids this morning the oil dipstick shows the oil is filled where it should be and there was no present oil leak so I'm guessing the low light was messing with my eyes. The bad thing is that the 3800s are not a dime a dozen in my area. there is one half torn apart 3800 at the closest junkyard which happens to be an hour away.