Kevin and everyone,
Then I finally got suspicious and pulled the dipstick. It was *way*
over-full, and milkshake city!
I didn't over fill, but the Trans Sport's crankcase became a partial
milkshake when I caught it. Her lifters were rattling.
Turns out that GM used super-crappy *plastic* intake gaskets (plastic
carrier with an elastomeric o-ring type actual gasket.
Correct. The 3.4 V6 has the same problem. Pontiac replaced the intake
gaskets under extended warranty about 3 years ago, but reused the GM
coolant! I switched coolant to Havoline's Dex-Cool compatible coolant. 2
years later, I began to have slight external leaks. I poured in a can of
Bar's Leak dark brown crud (you know what it looks like), and the leaks
stopped. 9 months ago, I changed coolant again, switching to Shell Rotella
Extended Life Coolant, which appears to be what the vast majority of the
overroad longhaul trucking industry is using exclusively. I did not replace
the Bar's Leak. The Trans Sport has no more external leaks, which would have
shown up after her 4137 mile high speed trip. The Trans Sport is dry as a
bone. The Rotella ELC is supposed to stop all gasket leaks and be compatible
with all gaskets. It offers much increased protection over Dex-Cool and
prevents any cross-differential metal corrosion.
Combine this with the generally destructive nature of Dex-Cool, and you
get coolant leaks.
True. Dex-Cool is pure crap. If Shell can make Rotella ELC, then there's no
excuse for GM to use the crap that is Dex-Cool.
***A little editorializing***. I'm not trying to be nasty here, but to
everyone who has a hard time believing that GM would screw the car buying
public into believing their car would run on unleaded gas in 1972 without
bothering to install hardened valves seats in the engine, well here is the
corporate greed of GM again. Dex-Cool is a poorly researched and bad
product. GM should never have attempted to create Dex-Cool inhouse. They
didn't have the chemical expertise to do it. GM should have let the chemical
companies who knew what they were doing create Dex-Cool, like Shell Oil
Company. But no, the name of the game is money. GM can do this! Sure, in a
pig's eye they could! GM has lost a lot of technical competency and were
never good chemists. It's all about money. GM has frauded the car buying
public again over Dex-Cool, just like GM did with unleaded gas in the early
'70s. Fraud has found it's way into GM's corporate culture. I don't know if
it will ever leave. ***End of editorial***.
I have pictures of the gaskets if anyone would like to see them, and I
believe that I will join the lawsuit in progress against GM for this
problem.
Please give me that website again. I still have all of the paperwork from
the warranty repair as proof. Now that I see how lightyears superior Shell
Rotella ELC is to Dex-Cool, it's simply criminal that GM is still pushing
Dex-Cool off onto the car consuming public, instead of switching to Rotella
ELC in all GM vehicles leaving the production line and to all GM vehicles
entering a GM service department.
In the meantime, I'm hoping that the bearings weren't completely
destroyed. I figure I'll spend $100 on gaskets and such ($80 for the
Fel-Pro improved version of the gasket, a Perma-Dry steel gasket. The
stock-type is $30. Fortunately, Rock Auto has them on eBay for $70
shipped) before I spend $2500 on a rebuilt engine or $1000 on a good used
one. I don't have $1000 right now in any case.
That's exactly what I would do.
Now for the question: the oil/water was up to the bottom of the intake
(something like 3 gallons came out!) and mixed up pretty good. I'd like
to flush as much of this nasty emulsified stuff out as possible. I intend
to fit a new filter, fill the oil, and run the oil pump with a priming
tool to wash as much of the old stuff out as I can. Is there anything
that ancient wisdom says would be useful in flushing the gunk out, either
added to the oil or by itself? Kerosene?
Kevin, based on my own experience with my Trans Sport and with reviving the
badly damaged 330 in my '65 F-85 due to drastic overheating, there are
similar affects here, the following is what I would do. It's going to cost
time and some more money::
1) Raise the car so the oil pan drain is either as flat as possible or, if
like my 3.4, the oil drain is angled down at a good position so
******ALL****** fluid in the oil pan will drain out.
2) After the intake is off and the valve covers, pull the rocker arms off
and remove the pushrods and lifters. Surgically clean the rockers arms,
inside of the pushrods, and disassemble the lifters for surgical cleaning.
3) Use a pressure can, like an AC line and system purge can, full of
kerosene and pressure spray the inside of the engine from the valley,
getting all of the milkshake out as possible. All the sludge will go out the
oil pan drain.
4) Relube the valve train components and lifters with cam break-in lube.
5) For the first oil fill of the engine, install 20/50 Mobile 1 synthetic
with a can of GM EOS. Run the engine for 30 minutes. Shut down and drain the
**hot** oil and pull the filter.
6) Refill the engine with 10/30 Mobile 1 and a new filter. Run normally for
3000 miles. Then change oil and filter with whatever you normally prefer.
You could also change the filter at 1000, top off with 10/30 Mobile 1, and
continue to 3000 for the complete LOF (lube, oil, filter) (See, I really did
this activity 30 to 48 years ago. That's standard auto shop slang.).
7) For coolant, either use standard anti-freeze, Prestone or Peak, or use
Shell Rotella ELC.
If you want to call me, my phone is 520-888-1731.
Milton Schick
1964 442 Cutlass
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
