Hey guys I'm hoping this gets answered rather quickly as I'm going to make up my mind before I get into the garage I'm using tomorrow. My coolant and oil mixed.. easy to diagnose... either the head gasket or intake gasket. GM 3.1 V6 engines are notorious for the intake gaskets going out. So as I'm nearing the end... I'm kind of torn, the engine in my monte carlo is really hard to work on, and someone suggest I take it down to the block and see if the head gasket was blown as well. But from what I can tell is that the only issue was that the dex cool ate away enough at the gasket to render it useless and let the coolant into the engine. Is there anyone out there with enough experience to help me out? I want to know if continue, break my back, and get the heads off to check or should I replace the intake gaskets and all preceding ones and call it a day? I've not got all the time in the world to do this, but I'd like the car to last a bit longer
GM 3.1 V6 Intake Gasket Replacement question!
Jan 11, 2008
6 Replies
If you found amn obvious leak on the intake gasket and you haven't overheated it, chances are the head gaskets are OK. Your time and money either way. Are you a sucessful gambler? Your guess.
Chris
I did this on my son's 2000 Malibu in October. Replaced the lower intake manifold gaskets, that is. It's not hard as long as you take your time and label things as you disconnect, etc. Felpro makes the best replacement gaskets, BTW. It's an entire kit with everything you need for the job. Make SURE you reinstall the pushrods in the proper holes - the intake and exhaust pushrods are two different lengths. Change oil after you button it up and again after less than 100 miles of driving. A Haynes manual at the least is essential for the job as well. Hit me with an email if I can answer any other questions for you.
Don't bother with the heads unless you know for sure it's a headgasket leaking. I've done 4 or 5 of those 3.1 intake jobs and never saw a bad headgasket even though some were run low on coolant. Get the FePro problem solver gasket set as it is the best one I have used so far.
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has some factory manuals available for download.
What a difference between them and Haynes/Chilton's/AllData manuals!
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