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O/T Coolant Loss

G

Genos

Member
I have a 2001 Buick LaSabre (3.8 litre emgine) and it looses about the amount from the hot to cold mark on plastic tank where you add coolant in 500 miles. can't see it on garage floor? no visible leaks, runs good. any ideas? Thanks Gene
 
Internal leak. Usually intake or head caskets. Very common on GM motors of that age. They had issues with their caskets not lasting.
 
The year range is indicative of the plastic plenum to intake o-ring cavity has deteriorated allowing the coolant to go out the exhaust or in the oil. Be careful with this repair because garages like to gouge customers on this repair.
 
My GM 4.3 going in for new intake manifold gasket in the morning. Samesymptoms - common to many of that era. Probably going to cost you about $500.
 
I worked in GM parts until the big recession. Sounds like you have the VERY common problem with the plastic upper intake. Easy to fix though. Replace it before it leaves you stranded. They will eventuly fill the cylinders up hydro locking the engine.
 
Just replaced one on a 95 park avenue 3.8 engine same problem. New manifold was around 100.00 and took around two hours to replace. Bottom intake was full of oil and coolant. Not too bad of a job.
 
My 98 pontiac was losing coolant also. I replaced the plastic plenum and that fixed my problem. There is a metal piece that is inbedded in the plastic. It heats up and eventually it breaks the seal around it and the coolant seeps past it. It is a fairly easy repair. About $100 for the parts and a couple hours of work for a DIY type of person. You will need to buy a special tool to remove the fuel line from the fuel rail. It is about $5 if i remember correctly.
SDE
 
3.8 liter engines also have a set of plastic elbows over by alternator that can crack. Usual this causes over heating of motor but sometime leak is small enough it just evaporates off.
 
Check real close just to the front above the top of the water pump. I had been loosing coolant for a while and it was evaporating on the hot engine until it got more serious. There are two plastic elbows one just in front above water pump and one lower to the rear. They sell for $5 and are not hard to replace.
 
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