intake gaskets again

[logankelly]

4500 miles ago my neighbor help me replace a intake gasket on a 97 3.1. He is a mech. that works in a gm dealership all gm parts he did the assembly and torqueing . Now I have water in oil 5 months later. 2qts. water in oil in 15 miles, drained oil had 7qts total. Maybe somthing else wrong and why did it go out 4500 miles later need some ideas

[tblake]

um, why you jump right to the intake gasket? Sounds more like a head gasket deal to me, sorry man.

[dwalmop]

Well, if the problem was a head gasket all along, there would not have been a 5-month period of no symptoms. Try doing compression test on the cylinders. If all ok, you probably (unfortunately) have a bad intake gasket again.

[Kooterskkar]

It sounds to me like the gasket surfaces werent properly cleaned when you replaced it the first time. They have to be squeaky clean, absolutely no traces of old gasket material, or sealer. And no oils or fluids on the surfaces when you put the new gaskets on.
I would do like dwalmop says and get a compression test done before jumping right to a bad intake gasket though.

[logankelly]

thanks for the responce, what should the compression be in the cylinders and can I do it on cold engine?

[dwalmop]

it's not necessarily what the compression is supposed to be rather than consistent throughout the engine. If you have 1 or two that is way off then you have a problem, and yes, you can do it on a cold engine.

[Kooterskkar]

Compression should be 135 - 140 psi. If you've got a bad head gasket you will probably find one or two with lower than 100psi.