Leaky Gasket ?

After reading and hearing about the leaky gaskets my husband looked at my coolant and there is oil mixing in it.

I have a 2001 and he would like to know if there is a good set of instructions (preferably with diagrams) that he could look at to see if he can fix it himself while he is on holidays next week. Would the $20 Canadian Tire book have that? Or is there somewhere online we could look it up?

Alternately, there is a mechanic that we'd like to bring it to but it is a 3 hour drive and since we don't know how long it's been leaking I don't know if I should risk the drive or pay through the nose at a local dealership.

Any ideas?

TIA,
Amanda

The Haynes manual I beleive cut off at the 2000 model year, but the process should be the same or very similar. The block and intake has remained the same pretty much through the 3400 engine life. The manual is available at most autopart stores here in the states, but I don't know what availablity is like north of the border. You can also easily find them online (eBay, online autopart stores, etc). It will have all the steps pretty much lined out.

The other option is to get the shop manuals. They will be signifiantly more and are harder to follow (things are in a step-by-step order really), but contains much more detail.

The process isn't hard, I rate it a 6 or so on a 1-10 scale, but it will take a considerable amount of time (8-24 hours depend on skill) and will require a few slightly specialized tools (torque wrench, crowsfeet) to do properly.

That being said, I wouldn't automatically conclude that it is your intake gaskets. Oil leaking int'o antifreeze would be very difficult as the oil isn't under pressure where the intake manifold gasket is located. It's almost always coolant into the oil. Since the coolant is whats under pressurized, any leakes in the gasket would allow coolant out. I'd look more to a faulty radiator. The oil cooler and/or transmission cooler run through the radiator and are known to cause internal leaks.

I'm with cdru, if you are getting oil in your coolant I would say the trans cooler is leaking. Check your trans fluid level. Also I would do a pressure test on the cooling system and see how it holds pressure.

I took it in and the dealership said it's the intake manifolds. :frown:

So now my question is, I'd like to take it to a mechanic near my in-laws house but it is a 3-4 hour drive from here. Should I take the risk and drive it or not? I'd be saving a lot of money and I haven't had any signs of overheating yet. (We were planning on having some other things fixed while there next week and a lot of my husbands family uses this mechanic and love him.)

Amanda