200K mile observation 3.8 GM

[951Indy]

Unfortunately in the last 2 weeks my 2003 Bonneville N/A started consuming coolant. Last night I stopped and got all of the parts and tore into the lower intake manifold job. I decided to do VC gaskets while I was in there, and found them to be surprisingly clean for 8 years/200K miles. Deposits under the covers ranged from none in some spots, to varnish type in most, to very thin carbon type film in a small percentage of surface. Rocker arms and lifter valleys both look like new.

5K mile OCI with whatever is on sale and Fram Orange, now. Was wally's 16.95 oil change, until they went to 30.

 

[Johnny]

3.8L are great little engines.

 

[The_Eric]

If you don't replace the upper intake too, at least change the EGR stand off tube to a smaller diameter one.

 

[Corvette Owner]

So, did you find and fix your leak?

I have a 2001 Impala with 117K miles on this engine. Previously had a 1995 Bonneville with the same engine, they are good engines with lots of low end torque. Interesting engine history, GM bought it back for it's great mileage. Essentially it is a 6 cylinder small block chevy V8.

Quote:
The Buick V6, initially marketed as Fireball at its introduction in 1962, was a large V6 engine used by General Motors. The block is made of cast iron and all use two-valve-per-cylinder iron heads, actuated by pushrods.

The 3800 was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines of the 20th century list multiple times, and is one of the most-produced engines in history. To date, over 25 million have been produced.

In 1967, GM sold the design to Kaiser-Jeep. The muscle car era had taken hold, and GM no longer felt the need to produce a V6, considered in North America an unusual engine configuration at the time. The energy crisis a decade later prompted the company to buy the design back from American Motors (AMC), who had by that point bought Kaiser-Jeep, and the descendants of the early 231 continue to be the most-common GM V6.

Though the pre-3800 RWD V6 uses the BOP bellhousing pattern that it inherited from its aluminum V8 ancestor, an oddity of both the FWD and RWD 3800 V6 is that although it is a 90° V6, it uses the GM 60° V6 bell housing. For use in the RWD applications, the bellhousings on both the manual and automatic transmissions are altered slightly.

The engine was produced at the Flint North plant in Flint, Michigan.

Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_V6_engine

Edit: When quoting material from another source on BITOG, give credit to the source. It is both a courtesy and usually a legal requirement.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: Corvette Owner
So, did you find and fix your leak?

I have a 2001 Impala with 117K miles on this engine. Previously had a 1995 Bonneville with the same engine, they are good engines with lots of low end torque. Interesting engine history, GM bought it back for it's great mileage. Essentially it is a 6 cylinder small block chevy V8.

The Buick V6, initially marketed as Fireball at its introduction in 1962, was a large V6 engine used by General Motors. The block is made of cast iron and all use two-valve-per-cylinder iron heads, actuated by pushrods.

The 3800 was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines of the 20th century list multiple times, and is one of the most-produced engines in history. To date, over 25 million have been produced.

In 1967, GM sold the design to Kaiser-Jeep. The muscle car era had taken hold, and GM no longer felt the need to produce a V6, considered in North America an unusual engine configuration at the time. The energy crisis a decade later prompted the company to buy the design back from American Motors (AMC), who had by that point bought Kaiser-Jeep, and the descendants of the early 231 continue to be the most-common GM V6.

Though the pre-3800 RWD V6 uses the BOP bellhousing pattern that it inherited from its aluminum V8 ancestor, an oddity of both the FWD and RWD 3800 V6 is that although it is a 90° V6, it uses the GM 60° V6 bell housing. For use in the RWD applications, the bellhousings on both the manual and automatic transmissions are altered slightly.

The engine was produced at the Flint North plant in Flint, Michigan.


thats some good information their. I had the 3.8 in my 1984 Pontiac GP. No problem with that motor,now the Turbo 200 that was mated to it was a different story.

 

[dwendt44]

Quote:
Essentially it is a 6 cylinder small block chevy V8.


Not a Chevy based engine.
Buick had a 301 V8 that could have been the 3.8s father; but some claim it's based on a Rover V8, though the displacements don't match.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: dwendt44
Quote:
Essentially it is a 6 cylinder small block chevy V8.


Not a Chevy based engine.
Buick had a 301 V8 that could have been the 3.8s father; but some claim it's based on a Rover V8, though the displacements don't match.


No, the Rover V-8 came along later as a cousin of the 231/3.8L V-6. Keep in mind also that displacement changes are relatively easy, and so, you can't assume that some simple math will reveal or disprove family history.

The subject engine appeared in production in 1961 as a 198 CID V-6, derived from, of all things, a GM experimental aluminum V-8 from the 1950s (the engine that became the Rover V-8). It gradually grew in displacement (with some side developments of smaller displacement), and actually spent some time as a Jeep engine (they bought the rights and tooling from GM in the late 60s or early 70s, IIRC), and finally made its way back to GM in the late 70s.

I've owned a couple of these myself, and they are wonderful engines. I don't often disagree with Johnny, but I will do so regarding his description of the engine as "little". Because of it's direct V-8 lineage, it is a 90 degree V design, which is not optimal for a V-6 (for its first decade or so, this resulted in a V-twin-like uneven firing interval, until split crank pins came along to "re-even" the firing). I suspect that its relatively large, splayed out size is one major reason why it's now gone, while the distinctly inferior (relative to the 231/3.8 engines) GM 60 degree V-6 family lives on.

 

[dwendt44]

Corvette Owner may be thinking of the 4.3 V-6 Vortex egine.
That is a Chevy V8 with two cylinders lobed off.
(350 small block)

 

[aquariuscsm]

Best engine ever made in my opinion.

 

[Steve S]

What may interest some is that the 4.3 engine has been used in many industrial applications I have seen them in Toyota, Hyster, Clark and Daewoo forklifts and in some generators as well as in Mercury and Volvo Penta outdrive setups.I am sure there are more applications it is a good motor .

 

[4drturbo]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
5,0000 miles with any filter is a good maintenance plan.
50,000 miles!?

 

[Steve S]

Typo! ya know the computers fault.

 

[beast3300]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Best engine ever made in my opinion.


I agree (I am alittle biased...) With just about 205k miles on the GS I am still working on getting it clean from the previous owner.

The 3800 can run on almost any brand or no brand oil for about ever.

 

[bobfather99]

188k on my '95 Bonneville, 103k on my Dad's '00 Lesabre, still going great. Ive used just about every kind of oil you can mention, they all work fine. Great engines!!

 

[951Indy]

Corvette, yep, both lower intake gaskets were breached at the coolant passages. Gasket/rubber surrounding passages was deformed and cracked. The upgraded and expensive Fel-Pro's are a work of art.
Eric, inspected the EGR tube and surrounding plenum with no abnormalities. From what I've read, the later 3.8s didn't have the same EGR/plenum problems. I changed the oil (17.99 for 5 qts Oreilly brand synthetic and an Mobil 1 filter), but didn't see any signs of contamination from coolant.

 

[nypr]

What about the v6 3100????????

 

[nypr]

Just bought a 2003 Centry with 39000 miles it has the 3100

 

[Brons2]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
What may interest some is that the 4.3 engine has been used in many industrial applications I have seen them in Toyota, Hyster, Clark and Daewoo forklifts and in some generators as well as in Mercury and Volvo Penta outdrive setups.I am sure there are more applications it is a good motor .


It is beyond me why people are talking about the (originally) Chevy 4.3 in a thread about the (originally)Buick 3.8.

 

[Brons2]

Originally Posted By: nypr
What about the v6 3100????????


Not related to the 3.8/3800.

 

[nypr]

How nice BRONS2