Just installed an oil pan gasket and new sensor that were leaking on my 03 Bonneville. I appreciate you taking the time. Very informative. I'm ordering the kits today and gonna get the rest of this done. Thank you.
Well my 03 Monte Carlo SS just turned 163,000. Always maintained. Checked out the engine compartment this morning and there it was. Very small leak at the lower intake, drivers side. So this weekend is shot. Glad the beer didn't spill.🤣
@@xanny7373 obviously a lot of those engines are more then 25 years old now plastic crap especially being in the engine bay exposed to all kinds of heat for years and years and years it’s gonna crack One thing you can address is the plastic coolant elbow from the factory that was made out of plastic go in from the tensioner to the cooling jacket of the engine supplying coolant those will break they make aluminum replacement it’s really not that hard to do I’ve done it on my 96 PA Way before my plastic one started to crack just as a preventative measure never had the issue and then the upper intake manifold that’s plastic I haven’t had that go out yet either but if it happens it’s easily replaceable that engine is child’s play to work on it’s not that big of a deal to replace that upper intake manifold when it goes as well as the lower lower intake manifold gasket both are an exceptionally easy job and that’s the lower intake manifold gasket being made out of plastic from the factory guess what they make an aluminum replacement in the aftermarket there are really three common failure plastic items on that 3800 engine the upper intake manifold housing is made out of plastic and the EGR tube will melt that eventually because it gets pretty hot and barrel to the lower intake manifold gasket from the factory was plastic they make aluminum replacements which knocks that issue out three coolant elbow right underneath the serpentine belt tensioner that’s plastic from the factory they also make an aluminum replacement that comes with a tensioner as well if needed If not you can buy that by itself on Amazon that job is not that hard all of this is not that hard that’s three issues with this car and the deck school coolant issue for shoes but that’s nothing compared to most cars And yeah the fifth problem the transmission is a little week mine hasn’t gone out it still shifts like a dream something tells me you don’t own one of these cars with this engine in it you’re just commenting because if you did on one of these cars with these 3800 series engines in it you would know about the aluminum upgrade replacements that’s common knowledge at this point my 3800 runs pretty good it has given me zero issues for two years so far but it was 68,000 miles on it it almost has 75,000 now I put several thousand miles on it within the first year of owning it with no issues it’s my daily driver they’re not bad cars you just have to know how to do certain things really any of this is not that hard to do what’s gonna be the expensive part of it is getting a shot to do it when it comes to the upper and lower intake manifold if you don’t know how to do DIY it look up a video show you step-by-step
@@shanooby4359 the reason why yours runs like shit is because you don’t know how to take care of it it’s true that upper intake manifold is made out of plastic and the lower intake manifold being made out of aluminum the gaskets for that from the factory were made out of plastic as well as the coolant elbow coming out of the belt tensioner was made out of plastic from the factory they have a little man replacements for the pool and elbow and the lower intake manifold gasket there are aftermarket replacements that are aluminum for that to mines been running for two years trouble free 74,000 miles it’s a 96 I have upgraded the coolant elbow from the plastic factory one to the aluminum replacement to remedy that issue and I will be doing the same thing with the lower intake gaskets as well it’s really not a hard car to work on and the engines are solid engines your runs like crap because you don’t take care of it basic maintenance mine runs like a champ because I keep up with the meat any engines gonna run like crap if you don’t keep up with basic maintenance this engine only has three things for things wrong with it that would make the engine overheat to the point of no return if you continue to drive it that way when you look at how many BMWs are out there with a plague of engine issues from timing chain tensioner’s going bad to plastic intake gaskets to plastic coolant hose is failing I mean BMW these days they were 3-D print the entire engine out of plastic if I could these 3800 series engines are pretty bulletproof and reliable you just have to know how to take care of them and they will be you take care of them they will take care of you replacing the coolant album pretty simple job upper and lower intake manifold if you’re up for intake manifold gets a hold put on it from the EGR tube it’s an easy job to replace it lower intake manifold plastic gaskets fail again easy job to replace it with the upgraded aluminum ones it’s not that difficult what’s going to be the difficult part is paying a mechanic to do it for you if you don’t know how to DIY that will make it expensive but either way it’s worth it because it’s a good reliable engine that will serve you for many more years I plan on doing all that other stuff myself when it comes time but I haven’t had any other issues really at all with my car I replace the coolant elbow that was plastic way before it broke as a preventative measure do you even own one of these cars with this engine in it if you do you would know about the aluminum upgraded parts it’s common knowledge I see in here a lot of people drive these engines on these cars to the ground because I don’t know how to maintain them and I think oh it’s just a car I don’t need to take care of it wrong you do change the oil change the coolant from time to time make sure there’s good gas in the thing change the spark plugs from time to time make sure there’s a good air filter in it new fuel filter I did all of that with mine besides changing the spark plugs in mine doesn’t run like crap it runs fantastic it’s called basic maintenance and aluminum upgraded replacement parts lower intake manifold gasket aluminum upgrade no upper intake if yours has a hole in it from the EGR tube from running to hot upgrade for that yet coolant elbow aluminum upgrade all these are sold on Amazon do a search on Google you’ll find them for sale there to
Very nice video. Well done..One thing i was un decided on, after viewing several videos, was what sealer to use on the lower intake manifold bolts...and how much to use....LIM and valve covers are installed tho...keep fingers crossed! UIM tomorror followed by injector cleaning and install...05 Lesabre has become a hobby. Thanks for the very nice video! jp New..8 days later..The 05 LeSabre is complete and running very smooth ! Thanks for all your tips and for a great video. jp
Thank you for your efforts! The plastic on our 93' Olds Delta 88 has degraded at the connection of the throttle body and the intake at only 50K miles. Shame they used these cheap components on these cars rather than metal resulting in this proceedure being required. This help a great deal in our preparation for this job. T'hank you!
Awesome video. Love the way you slowly went over each step and all the details you supplied. I've got to do this repair in the near future on my 02 Le Sabre and will be using this video as a guide, thanks again for the time you put in making it!!!
On my 96 LeSabre, I just replaced the front and rear valve cover gasket, grommets and water pump. I did not have to remove the tensioner…it does not go over the rear valve cover. But, I did have to unbolt the P/S pump to access one bolt on the water pump. The tensioner has a built in aluminum rear elbow but the front elbow was replaced about 8k miles ago. The hardest part was getting the P/S pump bolts…especially the bottom one back in.
TYSM Mr. Mark G. My car is being repaid and I didn't understand what type of work this was. After viewing Now I do understand. This 2001 was never repaired it the 1st time. So I'll assume it will feel new. Excellent video too.
One of the best videos on this repair I have seen. Good visuals and dialogue. Putting the plenum back on my Buick PA in a few minutes, looks like I caught it in time. Bookmarked it for reference!
Very good walkthrough Mark I'll be doing this one weekend from now to my 2003 Monte Carlo SS it'll be my first time so not as hard as people think it is as long as you know what you do and then you have common sense like the video though💖😄👍🇺🇸🇺🇸
Great job, very thorough, really appreciate you taking the time to make this video and helping us all out. I have a 2000 Buick LeSabre that is leaking coolant, your video will be a huge help and great resource.
Thanks Mark! I got lucky about 10 years back & found an 02 Regal with 15,000. It just turned 52,000 (I'm retired & only drive it if I NEED to). Some coolant disappears, so I'm about to do this job mostly as preventive maintenance since so many of the 3800s have the plenum & intake manifold problems. You gave me lots of good tips. Really happy to see one still going strong with 300,000+. Great engine & trans if you maintain it. If you have any thoughts after doing this job that might help me, please reply. Thanks again for posting very helpful video!
Thanks for a great video, very well done, and excellent presentation. I have to do this eventually, but right now i searched to learn how to replace my lifters on my Buick regal 2001. I will echo the comments by John Mcmorrow. Thank you for taking the time to make this video, there are MANY of us who appreciate it. AWESOME JOB.. Best regards
Brooooo very detailed vid,and very informative, helped me find my leak easily, vid should have waayyy more likes,thank you bro,keep on wrenching👊🏽💯💯....
@@teehook1 good luck. Not hard. If you ever worked on a Chevy small block not much to it. Look up the tightening patterns for the intake manifolds. And use thread locker on the bolts.
Great video! My 04 Grand Prix 3800 S3 SC Comg G has 231,000. Its having overheating issues, I seen this video because I wanna tackle job versus pay $$$ ButI thought I my car got a lot!
Oh I wish you can do mine I know those Auto people not going to clean it up like you did.I got a 2003 Pontiac Bonneville 300,000 miles runs good I just need that intake manifold change lol mark thank you so much for showing h sharing this video if you have any tips for me please respond
Great video, wasn't expecting the fuel injector clean out portion, I'm for sure doing that to my 2001 Lesabre. After the gasket replacement job, did you warm the oil up before changing or did you do it cold, in case there were some particulates?
How did you get so many miles out of this car? I have 2001 pontiac grand prix with 117K miles, I want to make the car lasts like yours, can you please give me some maintenance tips beyond oil changes?
How did you know you had coolant mixing with oil from the bad intake manifold gasket? I think you mentioned looking at the thermostat, what exactly are you looking for when doing that?
Confused as to why GM would recall these 3800s for potential fires and only replace the FONT valve cover gaskets add a couple spark plug wire retainers therefore negating the beauty cover bc it will no longer fit yet they don’t replace the rear valve cover gasket that is the same plastic POS The front has that could cause a fire?????
Excessive hard braking can allow oil to seep through the front valve cover gasket. Had my 03 Monte SS done many miles ago,no problem since. Rear valve cover still dry. I'm told that they make an extension tube for the front valve cover so you can reinstall the beauty cover. Haven't researched it.
I have the same issues with my 2001 Buick with same engine. Im curious as to why you changed the upper intake manifold? Great video very informative. Thank you
Ron, Sorry it's been a while since I did this repair, I did replace the upper intake manifold. From what I remember the inner diameter of the EGR passage and the manifold composite material around the gasket areas showed signs of degradation so I replaced it. I used the Dorman 615-180 (about $70) and came with the new modified EGR stove pipe.
Hi, thanks for sharing how to do this! I'm getting ready to attempt this job on my 01 Impala that's having the same problem. Also, did you have to buy a whole new upper intake manifold plenum? Can i replace only the gaskets on that bad boy or should i get a whole new unit?
Sorry for the slow reply, I would replace the upper intake plenum too, not worth not to since your going in deep. Mine was in poor shape around the EGR port area.
@@polynesianmovtgp7439 Its a very easy job. I took about three hours to completely change mine but again its the removable of all the connections you have to do
Is this the first time your gaskets failed..at 300k if so whats the secret..mine already failed at 60k.. i change my oil every 6 months at 2,200 miles i use conv..chevron oil I got a 2000 buick regal..had the recall done as well..where the replace the valve cover gaskets due to possible fire..its leaking again 5k later err..nice vid...are u a certified machanic?
@@mrmarkg8564 right on u should he a machanic..u are very detailed and skilled from the looks of the vid..i herd that at 100k these start to fail..the plastic manifolds ...mine hasn't yet..what do i look for when it does fail? My valve gaskets failed twice already with in 30k
@@edubb2491 You will see coolant leaking around the right side or rear of the intake manifold, near the EGR valve. The valve cover gaskets shouldn't fail that quickly, more likely the gaskets are ok, but covers were not torqued correctly.
No, you don't have to drain it, you will loose some when you pull the upper intake off, but not much, however, it is always a good idea to drain and replace the coolant when the system has been compromised to prevent future issues.
i just did the same thing to my car, ran fine before hand. Now it throws codes P0122, and P0452, and dies in idle. I've checked the vacuum lines and all the connections. You have any idea what could have caused this?
if overheated, it may get warped and start causing coolant to pass through the EGR tube. coolant then may get into cylinders. In this video he used Dorman plenum, I prefer ATP brand for that part. They should be kind of equal in quality though, I guess.
Well I'm not throwing any codes, I just have a coolant leak on the drivers side of the manifold. I was hoping it was just the upper plenum gasket, but I can't tell. 2005 Impala 3.8L
@@thegreatecb The lower gaskets are very common for the 3.8. No disrespect, but I think you'd be crazy to ignore it. They can get bad enough to make the car run very rough. If you're a second owner then they may have been done in the past already, but wouldn't you want that peace of mind? Just my 2 cents!
I feel so sorry for the next person that has to take that manifold off. Using red Loctite on Lower manifold bolts is a no no. You can use them on exhaust manifolds because you need to apply a lot of heat to loosen red Loctite and you would start to melt the aluminum before the bolts got loose. Anytime you have to torque a bolt you must clean the threads thoroughly and apply some type of lubricant a moly grease is the best if you cannot get your hands on ARP torque Lube. That's the only way you're going to get an accurate torque reading otherwise you just measuring the resistance of the thread that you're tightening it not the actual torque.
With 320K plus miles it's unlikely that anyone will have to take it off again. The red loctite comes in many different strengths, the 242 which I used is a medium strength with low torque break (about 100 in./lb.) so there will be no problems removing the bolts if needed. Loctite 2700 (also red) is a different story, it's a high strength loctite with high torque break (about 300 in./lb.). The 262 (medium/high strength) and 272 (high strength) versions are also red and torque breaks are about 200 in./lbs. Thanks for your feedback on the accurate torque readings.
what's more, this ride isn't going to cross the finish line for someone to take red locktite off, either way red lock tite medium strength or even the high strength at 11 lbs at torque on non torque yield bolts will come off, I promise
cars got 300+ thousand miles.... nobodies taken manifolds lower or upper on this car, this is what i call end of service life maintenance get another 30-50k. i have 2 impalas 1 with 3.4l and my replacement the 04 impala ss with sc and its just over 200k but rust will kill my new car before i get 300k unfortunatly i wish i could stop the rust but its a 500 dollar car not worth doing restorations. not to bad yet tho and boy it's definatly a quick car forsure
I have completed the work, but I have a water leak thru the throttle body now. New intake manifold and gaskets, new intake plenum and gasket. Torqued to specifications. What did I do wrong?
I did mine today, and ended up with the same problem after installation. Sucking coolant, cloud of white exhaust smoke!! :( It's been a while, but what did you find wrong?
@@johnadams4501 oh wow.... it was drama. Turns out my engine block was cracked. I bought a junkyard 3800 out of an lower mileage chevrolet impala. The car is now good!
I don't remember how long it took since it's been 4 years, I did it after work at night maybe 5 or 6 nights, but it was about 10-14 hours including the other work I did at the same time. I replaced upper intake manifold, lower intake gaskets and valve cover gaskets, spark plug wires, ignition coil (3&6), thermostat, cleaned fuel injectors, stabilizer bar supports and links, fuel filter, flushed and replaced coolant and changed water pump. My parts costs were about $400 in total, the parts listed in the video description were just under $200.
@@mrmarkg8564 okay thank you, but i was thinking the upper intake manifold doesn’t look cracked it’s just seem to be a bad gasket should i replace just the gasket or just buy new upper intake manifold, the car has the stock one on it & car has 124,xxx miles
What is that hose that says engine on it and it plugs right behind engine closer to the fuel injector in the rear and hooks up right behind the master cylinder on the firewall?
I have 1999 lumina same engine 3800 2 i have a gasket blown is there any way i can tell if the engine is gone or still good i want to replace my gaskets but im not sure if it will be worth it cause people are telling me if theres coolant in the engine its gone and need a new engine and I really dont wanna spend on a new engine...
I took it apart, there was coolant where the combustion chamber is if i remove all the coolant and replace the gaskets will it work? There is no bent or broken parts inside ,will it be worth it ?
@@mrmarkg8564 see your still replying, just bought a 03 lesabre here in Hawaii with 43k miles from an old man he let it sit for a while so I did a coolant flush with Dex cool heard good and bad.., new plugs, cleaned maf runs good so far. Is your 3800 still on the road?
@@mrmarkg8564 hey, thank you for replying so quickly. i was going to buy a haynes manual but my old man said dont waste my money. im thinking i should buy one eh?
@@mrmarkg8564 My car is a 1999 buick park avenue with the same engine. having a smell like antifreeze when i get out of the car after it has been running for time. like when the engine is hot. you know? i changed the radiator cap on a whim yesterday..... didnt fix anything. i cant find anywhere externally where there is a leak. but i am losing coolant. but not overheating. i have a suspicion that its the same issue you had. i have 177k miles on mine.
My mechanic didnt quote me a new plenum..jus the gasket for the plenum and the lower intake gasket....for 1100! i thought i was getting a new updated plenum!!! This dont seem right?
No, when the car is cold the computer gives the fuel injectors more gas make it a richer mixture plus the computer open study idle air control valve little bit to allow more air into the engine idles higher. That's why a car idles High when you first start it.
when its cold it should run abouut 800 to 900 rpm then quickly settle down to around 700 to 800 . if its reving over 1000 rpm...... your fuel pump is probably weak thats what caused a 1500 rpm idle on my dads 3.8 . you can get a fuel PSI tester at most parts stores for free should have 55 to 65 PSI IIRC (i could be wrong.... just google it) . their is a port on the fuel rail that should have a black cap on it simply screw on the tester..... turn the key on (dont start) and look at the psi then start it..... look at PSI then rev it up.... look at PSI . their is a spec for key on, engine off a spec for engine on and a spec for revving it up
