My son has a 2005 Impala with the 3800 engine. I know there are two kinds of 3800 engines - those that have the intake manifold gaskets replaced and those that will have the intake manifold gaskets replaced. This car has 170K on it and I assume the intake manifold gaskets have been replaced - never seen one last that long.
A month ago the car was low on coolant and the tempature was varying a lot. A shop checked it out and found the water pump leaking and the heater core mostly plugged. Pulled it apart, flushed the system and replaced the water pump. About a week later after that work I changed the oil (5000 miles) and sent it in for a check at Black Stone labs. It came back with a small amount of coolant in the oil (.85% - less than 1%) I'm not familiar with the water pumps on these. Can a leaky water pump leak into the timing chain cover on the 3800 series 2? Or am I looking at digging into the engine? When it was low on coolant it never got hot - at first we thought the vanes on the pump were mostly gone - at idle the temp would creep up (Stop light) but as soon as the car started moving the temp would drop back to normal.
Black Stone recommended shortening the oil change interval and of course to keep sending the oil in for monitoring. Beside the intake manifold where else is it common for these to leak coolant into the oil?
Thanks for the help.
A month ago the car was low on coolant and the tempature was varying a lot. A shop checked it out and found the water pump leaking and the heater core mostly plugged. Pulled it apart, flushed the system and replaced the water pump. About a week later after that work I changed the oil (5000 miles) and sent it in for a check at Black Stone labs. It came back with a small amount of coolant in the oil (.85% - less than 1%) I'm not familiar with the water pumps on these. Can a leaky water pump leak into the timing chain cover on the 3800 series 2? Or am I looking at digging into the engine? When it was low on coolant it never got hot - at first we thought the vanes on the pump were mostly gone - at idle the temp would creep up (Stop light) but as soon as the car started moving the temp would drop back to normal.
Black Stone recommended shortening the oil change interval and of course to keep sending the oil in for monitoring. Beside the intake manifold where else is it common for these to leak coolant into the oil?
Thanks for the help.