2002 Monte Carlo SS oil leak?

[BIGAL131]

I have a 2002 Monte Carlo SS with the 3.8 engine 65000 miles and well taken care of.The other day i noticed a smell while driving like burning oil inside the passenger compartment with also some slight smoke coming from my engine compartment while stopped. I opened the hood to see what was happening since that has never happened to me before with this car. After carefully checking the engine i noticed some oil pooling on top of the intake manifold just below the throttle body in the small wells of the casting which also looked as though it was running over onto the rear exhaust manifold. I recently read online that many were having issues with the 3.8 liter engine leaking either oil or anitfreeze from the plastic intake manifold on top of the engine.I also read that some are trying to get GM to recall this issue as GM supposedly knows about the faulty gaskets on this engine.Does anyone have the same issues with their Monte?? Any word about a recall? Does anyone have any idea of how much this repair would cost me to repair to replace the upper and lower lower intake gaskets with Fel-pro gaskets?I cant really tell if its oil or antifreeze because i cant get my hand down there to get some of it to check which it is but it does look like motor oil and smells like it when its smoking.Any help with this issue would be much appreciated!

[Blue Bowtie]

Roll up a clean white paper towel into a straw-sized tube, or wrap one around a pencil. Dip the towel into the liquid. The color should help indicate what the liquid is.

Good luck on the recall. This is not a safety issue nor is it a new thing. It also happens to only a relatively small percentage of vehicles. GM made millions of these engines, and even if 10,000 of them have a failed LIM gasket that is considerably less than 1%. Of course, those 10,000 people are going to make a lot of noise on the interwebs, but the percentage is still low. People have asked about a recall for years. It's probably NEVER going to happen.

At least you don't have a 1996 Chrysler with the Golden Shaft transaxle. Those never got recalled either, and they were actually a safety concern.

Search the GM foru8ms for "LIM" and you can find numerous very good threads about the procedures, parts, and results.

[BIGAL131]

Thanks Blue Bowtie for your response,I will try to make something to be able to get to the wells and gather up either some oil or antifreeze and see what it actually is. I am not making this issue with my Monte a big deal but there are many who have these issues with the 3.8 engine. I figured that after all the years of production on these engines that GM would learn from their design flaws and make a good engine! I had a similar problem with my 1988 trans am GTA with the 5.7 liter engine...leaking intake manifold and went back to the dealer with it under warranty....replaced the gasket 3 times over 3 years when i finally told them to repair it using felpro gaskets which finally did the trick but no expense out of my pocket. In my post here, i am asking if anyone here on this forum knows the repair cost to give me an idea of how much i need to spend. Is it possible for oil to come from the intake manifold? I thought it would be anifreeze and not motor oil?

[BIGAL131]

In case anyone is interested.....My local Chevy dealer gave me a price of $950 to replace both the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets to hopefully solve my oil leak problem....they told me it was a very labor intensive job because the parts cost were around $125 or so...Seems a bit much to me so i will see what my local repair shop will charge for this same job. I hope its a lot less than dealer pricing!.......................................... ........I went to a few of my local repair shops today.Most of the repair costs were averaging around $600 for replacing both the lower and upper manifold gaskets....Around $800 for also replacing the composit intake on top (the black plastic intake)of the engine.It was recomended for me to replace the black plastic intake with a new upgraded version which is supposedly better in quality compared to what i have now since the car was new. Going there tomorrow 1/26/11 to get my Monte fixed! Forget the dealer......Way too expensive as usual!

[BIGAL131]

After seeing what my mechanic went through to replace the upper and lower intake gaskets as well as the plastic plenum and also replacing the cheap plastic coolant tubes which were cracked i will NEVER buy another GM product....Expensive fix.I cant believe GM uses plastic parts for coolant flow...unbelievable and plastic parts which crack and break easily....Stay away from the 3.8 engine as well as all GM products! I learned my lesson with my monte ss pace car!

[johneb09]

I too have an 02 Monte SS with 72,000 miles and just noticed an oil leak. I've owned many GM cars with either the 3.1, 3.4, or the 3.8. Most of the GM cars that I've owned either had the intake manifold gasket replaced, or I had to have it replaced at some point. Its a very common problem, but I've come to realize it doesnt matter what kind of ride you have. If it has an engine, YOU WILL eventually need to have it worked on. The 3.8 engine has a reputation as being one of the best engines made. Aside from the well known intake gasket leaking.

[BIGAL131]

Thanks johneb09 for your input. I realize that there isnt a perfect engine out there but i would think that GM would improve their gaskets and build quality especially with known issues such as the intake gaskets and cracking of the plastic coolant elbows and the plastic plenum up top. I now have a better understanding of why GM was going belly up if it wasnt for the government money loan to keep it a float. With such known issues with their vehicles i would think that they would recall and fix these known issues with their engines instead of having their customers such as I fork over almost a grand to repair these leaks and other issues at our expense especially after knowing about these problems from years of experience and continuing to use cheap gaskets and plastic elbows instead of improving these items by model year.

[youngnwiaguy]

I also have an 02 Monte with the 3800 and had to replace my gaskets, I guess we're all on this website as well. Before this car I had a Grand Prix with the same engine and never had a problem with it, so I guess it's the luck of the draw unfortunately.