1997 Chevrolet Venture Camshaft?

My guess is that you have been loosing coolant from a lower intake manifold gasket leak. Coolant has been ending up in your oil. Dexcool is not a good lubricant and your camshaft bearings didn't like it. Your camshaft is hollow too. You will need to read as many of the names on the GM lower intake manifold gasket leak petition as you can stomach tonight and try to base a claim on this faulty part. Your milage will no doubt be working against you, but be calm and firm. These links have many good refrences and here is a picture of your camshaft .

"Steve" wrote

There is a reason that a camshaft breaks. They don't just break in normal use. On these engines, the camshafts break because the engine oil has been contaminated with coolant for an extended period of time and it destroys the camshaft bearings which in turn often weld themselves to the camshaft, spin in the block, and eventually stop the back half of the cam from moving and the front half keeps going. In every instance of this that I've seen, the cam bearings have spun in the cylinder block which renders it unusable. If the block is no good, you need a new motor. It's as simple as that.

The vehicle is too old now for GM to participate in any of the repairs. You might get lucky, but I doubt it. I think you will have to bite the bullet and get a new engine for the van. And then either get rid of it, or moniter your coolant levels closely and change the oil regularly....I'd go every 3-4000 kilometres on these engines.

Ian

Definitely not a minor issue. The probability of expansive repair ($800 to $5000 US) around 30K to 40K miles is 99.999%

If his motor was built after November of 2002 he has the "redesigned" part. Just have him watch the coolant level and bring it to the Pontiac dealer the moment he notices a drop in the level. Very important to catch this during the warranty period. Good luck with your engine.

But how do you determine when the motor was built?

That's the big concern I have.

Thanks...Brad

Knowing the gasket is going to fail, I would take it to the dealer regardless if there is actually a drop in coolant level. Do it just before warranty expires and tell them there is a leak all the same.

I can always hope.

My car was built sometime in January 2003....no idea if it was early or late January.

Brad