I have a 96 LeSabre with the 3.8 and 118k that is absolutely beautiful. I bought it from an 89 year old woman. She had the coolant elbow replaced with the aluminum. She also had the upper intake gasket replaced but not the lower. This year has the rear elbow incorporated in the tensioner. I have replaced all 4 struts, new brakes and rotors, rear wheel cylinders, water pump, hoses, thermostat, coolant flush, valve cover gaskets with new grommets, power steering pump and subframe bushings. Everything was pretty easy but just time consuming. The hardest thing I’ve done to this car was the subframe bushings…OMG what a job!!!
This video is why I ordered all new gaskets. When the weather warms up a bit and I can spend 2 days outside I'm doing the timing, water pump, valve covers and lower intake plus the new aluminum elbows all at once. It's my work beater I just bought and it's leaking oil around both sides of the lower intake. As well as the transmission fluid change and gasket because that has trans fluid almost all the way around the pan
I'm doing this job right now on a 03 impala LS with 56 thousand miles i just bought. The plastic coolant elbow was leaking but oil was also getting pushed up out the lower intake bolts. Its a fun job. On a side note, the inside of the engine looks brand new.
this was incredibly helpful! managed to replace the gaskets despite having zero experience with car repairs, unfortunately the head gaskets are also shot so i will be needing a new engine :/
MAn i bought an 04 grand prix last year and boy i wish i saw your video before i started mine cause i was not prepared for what all it entailed... it was my 1st head gasket change...whould you consider doing voice over for this video... great camera skills and positioning keep it up guy
Just putting this out there. The head gasket itself almost never goes out. GM designed them with a weaker than usual intake gasket. It blows way before the head gasket 99 % of the time. I worked as a mechanic for yrs and I done probably 200 of these to be honest and I only seen 2 head gaskets blown. The sad part is other garages told most of them they had a blew head gasket
@@appalachianfishing8548 Hey my 2000 Grand Prix GTP has white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I am assuming that it is too late at this point and that the head gasket has already gone out. It has 260k miles on it so I am not expecting much more from the car. Do you agree?
@@appalachianfishing8548 I was just going to say this! Lol. Definitely beware of shops saying head gasket because it's rarely that. I swear people don't know how to diagnose properly at most shops
Good video thanks. I have a 2007 Lucerne. Keeps getting Misfire on Cyl 3, changed plugs and wires, moved coils around and same issue. Wish I had a borescope to view inside engine to see if #3 cylinder was steam cleaned.
Wish I could help. Harbor freight has a decent tool for $60 that would get inside the head. I never ran into a misfire issue, but is it random or misfire every time?
@@coledoesthings4618 Misfire is constant on #3. I have a scanner that does data logging and can watch the misfire count increase. Whats the best way to check for a leaky lower intake manifold gasket?
@@atxjax1 On the 3800 forums on FB, I saw that if while the engine is at idle and warm, if you remove the oil filler cap and it stumbles and wants to stall, that is a dead giveaway that the LIM is shot. Haven't tried it myself...but guess why I'm at this page? LOL and I also have an '07 Lucerne CXL.
Hey Cole, thanks for the video. My 2000 Grand Prix GTP has white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I am assuming that it is too late at this point and that the head gasket has already gone out. It has 260k miles on it so I am not expecting much more from the car. Do you agree?
Can the LIM be mistaken for head gasket replacement? My mechanic told me the heads aren't blown, but that the thermostat has to stay out of the car until winter or it will get hot again. He also believes the problem is still the head gasket even though it is not blown, does this make sense? 2008 Buick Lacrosse 82k miles.
How is the head gasket and issue if it's not blown ? Genuine question that I might learn from. My experience is mechanics are too quick to say head gasket and it winds up being intakes. Just do the leak down test and you'll know
Why is it running hot? I mean, head gasket going to keep it hot whether it's summer or winter. Is it just the engine running hot under the hood? My engine was giving off too much heat under hood and it's fixed now with intakes. Of course my temperature gauge on dash was normal, not overheating
Nice video. How many hrs do you think it took you? I have a 2005 Buick with the same engine and 125K miles. I just started losing a little coolant but haven't found the leak yet. I have a bad back so I'll be paying someone. Thanks
idk where you live but if it helps try a local library they have manuals you can rent out and look and get the specs from there like the Haynes manuals
Electronic throttle body, forged connecting rods, heads, larger valves, aluminum intake, aluminum oil pan (05-08) and a few other things I can't remember
Great question. I actually don’t remember. This was a while ago, and I did the timing cover gasket at the same time so I had the entire front of the car apart. My guess is that I did have the Jack/tire under there just for support in case a stand failed. The engine didn’t move at all when I took that mount off, so that leads me to believe I had something under there supporting it.
1400? Damn. My parts are about 200$. Got a personal mechanic doing it for 250 labor... For $640 I got upper and lower intake gaskets, plenum, thermostat, washer pump, EGR and the elbow, and fluids. Parts and labor. I see some intakes are a little more expensive but 1400 is a ripoff imo.
@@edubb2491 a guy who does it out of his garage in Milwaukee and I don't know how much your parts were but for a 2005 grand prix the intake parts were about 100
Yep, the lower intake gaskets are aluminum. They fail where they butt up to the gasket on the block, which is just rubber. You can see I put 3 coats of RTV in each of those corners to prevent that from leaking this time.
Thanks for the question! I do, actually. I’ve had it for a few years, and outside of routine maintenance and a couple issues that are common at this mileage (250,000 miles), it’s been really reliable. They are cheap to purchase, and cheap to maintain. There is also a ton of information available online to help with maintenance.
1400 bucks to replace the intake gasket wow that is insane that is what a full blown head gasket job cost including getting the heads machined they tried to rip you off
Yep, they also tried to just get me to swap the motor out for a used one. That would have been $1,800, so they really pushed that as the better alternative.
Bob DeCastro I cleaned the entire intake with carb/choke cleaner and a rag. Same with the heads for the mounting surface, but I would recommend a razor blade at a very slight angle to get the old gasket pieces off. It was a very helpful trick on the timing cover gasket.
