engine knocking like crazy. do i have a claim?

[P4killer_]

ill post up when something new happens. but thanks for the replies. kinda helps having a forum of people to bounce things off of when the unexpected happens.

[STEvil]

Fix your rad, excessive temperature swings are what cause a head to warp which is what sounds like happened to yours if he's replacing your entire head.

[Jessica]

Well, people will say a blown head gasket will put water in your oil. I call b.s. on that. If you know how heads are designed that just doesnt happen. Cracked blocks cause water in oil, end of story. Now, sometimes people blow head gaskets and crack blocks at the same time and that is where that myth come from.

If your car was getting hot you should have pulled over and let it cool down then added water, or drove for very short distances then stopped before it got hot until you could get water.

Long story short, it sounds like a blown gasket to me and a cracked block if your oil is milky colored. Simple way to check for water in oil is simply pull the drain plug, the water will be separate on the bottom of the pan and it will come out first.

Best of luck o.p.

edit:

just noticed there are two pages to this thread and you got it figured out. lol

[deathcards]

my 3800 in my impala oil in its coolant but no coolant in its oil imagine wtf i was wondering lol found out it was the lower intake manifold gaskets had a slight melt/warp replaced it quit losing oil and my coolant quit clogging my heater core pretty easy to fix gotta pull off alt then intake plenum all the wires have a certain shape and will only fit into the correct ones

the lower intake has coolant, oil, and air passages so there is a possibilty that part of the gasket melted and caused a slightly to moderate leak of antifreeze into cylinder 2

[P4killer_]

Well long story short. The other shop saying its 90% of the time the intake.. my brother said the same thing. They said upper intake ,completely blew. Lower gasket leaks. They also want to change the plastic pipe that feeds the water pump. All parts labor oil and coolant change including tax comes to $723.40.

Now I hate to put 800 after tow into a car with 158k but I figure its better that than buy a cheapie car with no idea of its history or any issues..

The 3800 is very solid motor so after this as long as I change the oil and don't beat on it hopefully it'll gimme a while longer on the road.

Thanks for the help though everyone.

[jg23]

get a compression tester, solve the mystery in about 30 minutes.

a leakdown test would be a better thing to use, that way he can pin point exactly where the leak is.

OP good to see you got it figured out, if i would have seen this earlier i could have helped out.

white smoke= coolant/water

blue= oil

black=gas

white gunky oil= oil mixed with coolant

[deathcards]

Well long story short. The other shop saying its 90% of the time the intake.. my brother said the same thing. They said upper intake ,completely blew. Lower gasket leaks. They also want to change the plastic pipe that feeds the water pump. All parts labor oil and coolant change including tax comes to $723.40.

Now I hate to put 800 after tow into a car with 158k but I figure its better that than buy a cheapie car with no idea of its history or any issues..

The 3800 is very solid motor so after this as long as I change the oil and don't beat on it hopefully it'll gimme a while longer on the road.

Thanks for the help though everyone.

i see around 230 in parts/oil/coolant that is intake plenum and lower intake gaskets the real collant elbows are around 22 for both

[kandiman71874]

if its the upper intake gasket, you might as well change the lower one too. you have to remove the whole plenum regardless of which one it is, iirc.

It isnt so much the gasket as it is the egr stand pipe area that erodes away over time due to acidic coolant and heat. The plastic cant take the pressure of the cooling system anymore and pops a hole in the intake which in turn ends up filling the lower intake valley with coolant and into the runners it goes into the engine where its sucked into the engine and burned therefore creating the white smoke.

[kandiman71874]

Well long story short. The other shop saying its 90% of the time the intake.. my brother said the same thing. They said upper intake ,completely blew. Lower gasket leaks. They also want to change the plastic pipe that feeds the water pump. All parts labor oil and coolant change including tax comes to $723.40.

Now I hate to put 800 after tow into a car with 158k but I figure its better that than buy a cheapie car with no idea of its history or any issues..

The 3800 is very solid motor so after this as long as I change the oil and don't beat on it hopefully it'll gimme a while longer on the road.

Thanks for the help though everyone.

Did the shop even bother to run a combustion gas test either with the blue fluid and tester or a 4 gas analyzer?

[matt14]

Well long story short. The other shop saying its 90% of the time the intake.. my brother said the same thing. They said upper intake ,completely blew. Lower gasket leaks. They also want to change the plastic pipe that feeds the water pump. All parts labor oil and coolant change including tax comes to $723.40.

Now I hate to put 800 after tow into a car with 158k but I figure its better that than buy a cheapie car with no idea of its history or any issues..

The 3800 is very solid motor so after this as long as I change the oil and don't beat on it hopefully it'll gimme a while longer on the road.

Thanks for the help though everyone.

Did the shop even bother to run a combustion gas test either with the blue fluid and tester or a 4 gas analyzer?

This. What you should have your shop that is doing the work do is to diagnose the car instead of doing it over the phone. Request them to perform a compression test and a combustion test to see if you have gases mixing in the coolant. To be honest, you did the wrong thing by continuing driving the car knowing that the car was misfiring and coolant was leaking, car was overheating. IF you just have just some blown intake gaskets, you would be very lucky. Also get your radiator replaced. You are just asking for more problems by not replacing parts that you know are bad, that can give you further issues down the road. I get this from customers all the time. They decline recommended work, but get mad when they break down from neglecting their car.