I was having issues with my 2001 3.8L monte recently and replaced the TPS thinking that was all I needed. I took my car to the dealer to have them program the TPS. I receive a call later saying that my car has hydro locked due to a failure of the LIM gasket and they need $1500-$2000 to replace it and the fouled plugs with it. I couldn't see paying this much for my car as its probably only worth $3000 at best. So I had it towed home and am preparing myself to undertake this job myself. I have worked on cars before but nothing of this magnitude and am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Does anyone have any pointers, tips, advice to offer as I get ready to do this? I recently read about Dex-cool and oil mixing to produce an acidic liquid that will harm your engine recently and am now wondering if my engine is already shot. To put the time and money in to replace the manifold gaskets and still not have a running vehicle is a scenario that is starting to worry me. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

There's about 3 other current threads out there on this right now that you could take a look at also.

Just make sure you use the metal gaskets for the manifolds and you should be fine, your engine shouldn't be shot, gasket issues are pretty common so I wouldn't worry about that.

I would set a whole weekend aside to do the job just because it can take a long time if it is your first time and you wouldn't want it to take longer than you had and then be stuck without a car

Good luck!

 

it took me five days but probably could of done it in 3 or 4 days but i also did valve cover gasket plug wires and flushed the dex cool completely out....its not really to hard and theres other links here with tons of pointers but if you have any question about any of it while doing it let me know...

 

from what I hear it should take 4-6 hours to do the complete job with a pretty good knowledge of your way around the engine

 

yeah i wouldnt believe that it takes that long to take everything out the way its like you gotta take three things off to get to the bolts you need to get to .....i wasnt in a big hurry either..

 

I googled it and found a pretty thorough article on the process on a bonneville forum and read a bit about a top end swap for the Grand prix to get some ideas on what I was getting into. It doesn't seem like there's much to it, I just wanted to hear from some people on this site who had knowledge on the subject or had done it themselves for any advice or tricks or things I should do while I've torn it down to that point. Thanks for looking and replying.

 

L36_intake_gasket pictures by platjblser - Photobucket

here factory directions on how to do, the scans are out of order though

 

WITH A COMPLETE FLUSH AND REPLACEING THE UPPER AND LOWER INTAKES YOU SHOULD BE FINE......ONCE YOU HAVE IT BACK UP AND RUNNING.....BESURE TO DO A CPL OIL CHANGES ON IT..TO BE SURE YOU HAVE THE LOWEREND FLUSHED AND CLEAN.....

ALSO IF YOUR NOT SURE YOU WILL REMEMBER EVERYTHING DURING REASSEMBLY......WRITE STUFF DOWN...MARK WHERE EVERYTHING GOES..OR ...BETTER YET....SINCE MOST EVERY PHONE NOWADAYS HAS A CAMERA...TAKE PICTURES DURING DIS ASSEMBLY TO HELP YOU PUT IT BACK TOGETHER CORRECTLY....

AS I TOO HAVE A 3800.....AND BEEN THRU THIS PROCESS.....

JUST TAKE YOUR TIME ......AND YOU SHOULD BE ALL SET...

 

100% agree with the above statement. Once finished doing all the work, change the oil and filter, drive the car about 100-300 miles, change the oil and filter again. You can repeat a 3rd time if you see signs of gunk in the oil still (but odds are, this should be susfficient).

Use aluminum LIM gaskets. Replace the coolant elbows while doing all this work ($5-$10 off the dorman rack at the parts store). Clean all parts as best you can while doing this process. When changing spark plugs NEVER use Bosch plugs in GM cars. Stick with AC Delcos if you can. NGK is also not bad, but AC Delco ensures the right part for the car.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I appreciate the help and will update how its going once I get into it more.