97 Lumina 3000 miles 5w30 valvoline

[Santo Fontana]

This is my dads company car, it has the 3100 v6 and about 70,000 miles. When they gave it to him about 10k miles ago I told him if it doesnt have a leaky intake gasket it will soon. Sure enough I noticed some foam crap on the oil fill cap and a small loss of coolant and sent away the oil for analysis.

aluminum...5
chromium...1
iron.......20
copper.....20
lead.......72
tin........4
moly.......7
nickel.....1
manganese..1
silver.....0
titanium...0
potassium..245
boron......13
silicon....11
sodium.....66
calcium....1889
magnesium..42
phosphorus.798
zinc.......969
barium.....0
sus vis @ 210f.....62.1
flashpoint.........410
fuel............... antifreeze.........?
water..............0....0
insolubles.........0.5
TBN.............n/***

 

[TooSlick]

You need to get this fixed ASAP, before you dissolve all the lead off your main/rod bearings ....The K and Na levels are dead giveaways, as is the bearing wear....

Tooslick
dixie synthetics

 

[Santo Fontana]

Its a company car, so the correct people have been notified.

 

[Chris B.]

What did they say?

 

[Santo Fontana]

They thought the uoa was cool and they are going to fix it.

 

[Drew99GT]

Over 50% of the GM reports we see have internal coolent leakage! Maybe even more. That's just scary

 

[Santo Fontana]

I agree. Its sad that these engines have the same problem year after year.

 

[Drew99GT]

Well, it's keepin those GM Techs above 40 hours every week

 

[Schmoe]

I'd rather worry about a leaky head gasket than blowing spark plugs out the head on the 4.6/5.4l Fords.

 

[Al]

The engineering team that designed this 3.1 and 3.4 should be marched off a cliff

And GM will not stand behind this poor excuse of an engine. I will never again buy another GM vehicle.

 

[MNgopher]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Schmoe:
I'd rather worry about a leaky head gasket than blowing spark plugs out the head on the 4.6/5.4l Fords.

---

Your odds of having this issue on the 4.6/5.4 is very minor compared to the failure rates we see on the intake gasket on this series of motors.

Never ceases to amaze me how problems with one brand makes people comment on another...

 

[Cutehumor]

results like this makes me worried because I have to buy a GM car in two years (gm card earnings expire 3/06) my soon to be wife hates the pontiac vibe, she says she hates the look of a hatchback

and I don't qualify for any saturns especially the saturn vue with honda 3.5 Liter I want. I was hoping GM would fix their problem engines but it doesn't look like this would happen anytime soon

 

[jthorner]

You could use some of the GM card rebate to buy the longest extended warranty available. If you go that route, buy a GM extended warranty, not one of the aftermarket extended warranties.

John

 

[goldfinger]

Or buy a GM with their 2.2L EcoTech.

I'm thankful everyday that I bought a GA with the 2.4L instead of the 3100.

Given the choice of 2.2L vs 3400 I'd pick the 4 banger again. Just too many issues with their V6s.

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

---

Well, it's keepin those GM Techs above 40 hours every week

---

Tell me about it. The ones that are actually willing to do anything but brake work can make a fortune on these jobs. Ive seen guys do it in about a half an hour.

quote:

---

I'd rather worry about a leaky head gasket than blowing spark plugs out the head on the 4.6/5.4l Fords.

---

Its the intake gasket, and it usually leaks into the engine (killing the bearings as you can see from this UOA). It is almost gauranteed to happen if you own a 60 degree gm v6. Also, its much harder to replace this gasket than on the 3800.

quote:

---

results like this makes me worried because I have to buy a GM car in two years (gm card earnings expire 3/06) my soon to be wife hates the pontiac vibe, she says she hates the look of a hatchback and I don't qualify for any saturns especially the saturn vue with honda 3.5 Liter I want. I was hoping GM would fix their problem engines but it doesn't look like this would happen anytime soon

---

GM still has plenty of good motors, especially the 3800 and pretty much any v8. I wouldnt hesitate to buy a car/truck with one of those engines. I owned a Regal with the 3800 - smooth, quiet, powerful, and EXCELLENT gas mileage (better than my WRX by far).

quote:

---

Or buy a GM with their 2.2L EcoTech. I'm thankful everyday that I bought a GA with the 2.4L instead of the 3100. Given the choice of 2.2L vs 3400 I'd pick the 4 banger again. Just too many issues with their V6s.

---

From the limited amount of work ive done on ecotecs I have to say they are kind of a pain to work on. They also did not have a very good rep in the dealership I worked in.