Intake or Head Gasket

[allan123]

I have a 96 Lumina APV, I just replaced the water pump thinking that is was leaking because of coolant getting on the sepentine belt. As I was driving home from work tonight the van quit and the volt gauge dropped dramatically. I pulled over and it started right up. I continued home about a mile away and when I got in the driveway it quit again. It started right up but would quit once you lifted off the gas pedal. I left it for a few minutes and when it would continue to run I opened the hood to see a major coolant leak behind the power steering pump where the Head, Block and Intake meet. It would really stream out when I revved it up, and the van would sputter at higher revs. The only thing that happened before all this was a couple of times on the way to work the temperature guage would shoot up almost to the red and all heat would stop then the guage would drop to the bottom and go back up to the red again. This would happen about 4 times on a 5 mile trip. I was told this may be the lower intake gasket before I found this major leak tonight. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Allan

[Carwhiz]

Lower intake gasket is common on the 3.1's and the 3.4's. The OEM gaskets were a poor design, if you ever get a chance to look at one, you'll know what i mean. It is a repair that isn't too difficult, but if you have any doubts i would have a shop do it for you. Doing it yourself, it's about a three hour job, taking your time and being carefull. I've done a bunch of them. Less then $100 bucks for both intake gaskets.

[richtazz]

Yep, I agree, classic intake gasket failure. It's more like a 6 hour job for someone doing it the first time, but not "difficult". The most important thing is to clean any sludge that may have formed on the underside of the intake, and, even though it's against our "guy gene", FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!! Make sure you use threadlock on the bolts and torque everything to spec.