higgsfamily5

My buddy has a '99 Venture with a V6. Recently he noticed that he had oil in his antifreeze. He took it into the shop and they told him it was the valve cover gaskets. Well after he had already paid them $700 he told me about the issue. The diagnosis of the valve cover gaskets being the culprit didn't sound right to me. Oil in the antifreeze from a valve cover gasket???? Does that sound right to anyone?? I asked him what color the fluid in his antifreeze was and he just said a "dark" color. I was thinking that it could be more in the area of a tranny oil cooler line running through the radiator that may be leaking tranny fluid into the antifreeze. I don't own one of these vans so I have never worked on one. Do they have a tranny cooler line running through the radiator? Last year he had the tranny rebuilt. Two weeks ago it started acting up so he brought it in and the said it as some "injector" or something and wasn't a major isse to fix. I jjst don't want to see him think everything is now okay after replacing the valve cover gaslets only to find out there's another major issue that's been overlooked. Any ideas anyone could throw my way. Thanks.

rockwood84

there is a trans cooler in the radiator. the lines hook up on the passenger side of the radiator. it is possible that there is a hole in the cooler letting the trans oil mix with the coolant.but this is rare. the plastic side tanks are replacable on g.m. radiators. but oil in coolant usually means a intake gasket leaking maybe even a head gasket blown. these are common problems with the 3.4 from '96 up to '04 . is he loosing any coolant ? a leaking intake gasket will loose any where from a pint to quart in two days short trips and more on longer trips. look at the oil cap and see if any white gook is on the bottom of it.also if intake gasket is leaking the exhaust will have a small amount of steam in it .take your bare hand and see if you can hold it 1" to 2" from the end of the tailpipe with it idling if it burns your hand then intake gasket blown.some say look for white or grey smoke out of the tailpipe but this doesn't always happen. does the temp gauge fluctuate ? or try to run hot? never heard of a valve cover gasket leaking and getting oil in coolant.are you sure they didn't put the intake gaskets in as $700.00 sounds real **** steep for replacing the valve cover gaskets.