Hey Everybody,

New member here and just wanted to see if anyone could help me with my issue. I have an 05 Monte Carlo LT (3800 Series 2) with approximately 90K miles. This past Sunday a friend and I did the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets along with the coolant elbows. The front elbow was cracked and leaking and the rear elbow looked to be going the same route. The gaskets did not look terrible at all and probably did not need to be replaced. Main reason for doing so was I've seen all the issues with those gaskets and figured might as well while we're at it. Spark plugs and wires were also replaced.

Car drove perfect from Sunday through Tuesday. No check engine lights, the coolant smell was finally gone and I finally had good heat coming out of the vents. Then this Wednesday morning the car did not want to start the first couple tries. It would just immediately stall. On the third attempt I also gave it some gas and it started but it idled terribly. The check engine light also came on blinking so I shut I immediately shut it off. Smoke was also coming out of the right tail pipe.

I did not smell coolant, it was more of a fuel/oil smell. I did not get a chance to inspect more since this was right before I had to go to work. I'm very curious if anyone else has had a similar issue or if anyone knows what would cause this. I'm not sure if this is related to the gaskets being change or possibly the spark plus. The fact the car was driving great the past two days makes this even more surprising. Any insight on this would be appreciated.

 

I don't believe the intake manifold gaskets would affect that unless you got them misaligned and they were leaking.
The elbows should be good that they were replaced. Spark plugs are a good thing.
Most likely its and issue that just came up with 90k on the thing who knows.
If you haven't replaced it yet you might want to look at the Fuel pressure regulator they have a tendency to leak and will cause some explosions under the manifold cover this forum is full of those kind of issues.
I will see if I can find a link for you on this subject.

 

sounds like you did all the right things you may have a bad fuel pressure regulator and they will cause and explosion under the hood and destroy the manifold covers and other stuff. here is a link to google that you can explore the subject. But you should probably replace that item before it goes bad.

https://www.google.com/search?client...gulator+defect

 

Hey drivernumber3,

Thanks for the response, definitely will be taking a look at this tonight after work. Luckily I have access to a snap on scanner so we'll see what error codes are displaying.

 

See if any of the sensors are bad on the throttle body. Sounds like the IAC valve. Or could be the MAF.

One way to check the FPR is to remove the hose connected to it (while the engine is running) and watch to see if the nipple on it spits out any gas. Sometimes you can smell it also. It can take several minutes for this to happen. And in case it doesnt spit out gas, youre not in the clear. Thats just a quick check thing. Yea tho, that can cause an explosion if its bad and not corrected.

Just to put you at ease a bit.. These cars dont have a real dual exhaust, its just easier flowing thru the right muffler because of the y-pipe placement.