Montana head gasket

Not the head gasket...the lower intake manifold gasket. It goes unexpectedly and lets the oil and water mix. You have NO idea it's happened unless you check the oil VERY frequently (and see the white foam starting to form) or--it starts to get hot as you drive for no apparent reason. It has happened to MULTITUDES of 3.4 owners--including me on 2 '96 Pontiac vans. Costs from $400-$800 to get it fixed. The service mgr of my Pontiac dealer said that even tho GM has known about it for years, it is still a problem with the 2004s. At one point the gasket mfg couldn't keep GM supplied. And the worst part, it can happen again ANY TIME! I (and thousands of others) will NEVER buy a 3.4 engined car again.

John snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

"PDM Painting" wrote

The trouble with these vans is mainly the lower intake manifold gasket. But....we have started to seen an increase in the number of 3.4 engines with the head gaskets splitting and leaking coolant. Usually, it's the rear cylinder head gasket. I've also noticed that GM has changed the composition of the new head gaskets, so maybe they were ahead of themselves this time around.

Ian

One of the vans we looked at I couuld see some seepage coming from the lower intake gasket, and the oil cap had the white milky substance, but the dealer told me that some seepage was normal and they would'nt replace the gasket for me before I bought the van. But in my mind if it is seeping on the outside of the block, is the same not happening to the inside?

Thank you Paul Merritt

thats correct around 2 years or 40km

Mine went around 60K km - it's a 1998 Transport with the 3.4L. The good news was the coolant was leaking OUTSIDE the block, so I'm hoping none got into the oil. It didn't appear to be contaminated with coolant. Still cost over $1,000 to have it replaced though.

Derek

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