Help with Antifreeze dripping into oil pan

[CamaroJoe]

Hi guys, my 2002 Camaro had a small oil pan gasket leak, took it to my mechanic to have the oil pan gasket replaced, when they removed the oil pan they noticed that there was a small amount of antifreeze leaking into the oil pan. They want to do a full upper and lower intake manifold repair. Question is could there be other causes for the antifreeze to leak into the oil pan? This car is not my daily ride, I check the oil, antifreeze and transmission fluids before and after each time I take the car out for cruising. Also check the oil and water gauges during drive all readings are within the correct ranges. Car runs great. Car has 122k original miles with original upper intake manifold. Would like some suggestions what would cause antifreeze to leak into the oil pan. Don't want to spend too much money on unnecessary repairs. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ssms5411]

They might be right or it’s a head gasket. Usually they can do a compression check on the head gaskets to see what their at.

[LETZRIDE]

The 3.8l Camaro’s were known to have their lower intake manifold gaskets go bad. This is a result of the dexcool that GM opted to use.

If you have some mechanical knowledge it isn’t that big of a job to do yourself. Gaskets through our sponsor Rock Auto are fairly cheap

To answer your question though, the Lower intake manifold is the most likely culprit and aside from the head gasket there isn’t really anything else that would cause coolant to go into your oil.

Have you opened your radiator cap? Typically oil mixes with the coolant and makes it milkshake colour and is more likely to be evident in there.

[CamaroJoe]

Yeah I was afraid of that.... The radiator and hoses was replaced about a year ago by the previous owner with the green antifreeze, As mentioned before I check the antifreeze levels regularly and have not noticed any discoloration in the radiator or radiator cap.
Since I will need to replace the upper manifold gasket, will probably replace the upper manifold also.

Thanks for the help.

[LETZRIDE]

There are no options for intake manifold replacements for the 3.8 unless you are looking to go holden and that requires fab work.

How did you determine that there is antifreeze in your oil? Are you positive it isn’t condensation in the oil?

[CamaroJoe]

I only know what I was told by my mechanic, when they dropped the oil pan they were seeing antifreeze dripping into the oil pan. After they replaced the oil pan gasket, they ran a pressure test overnight and notices a drop in water pressure,

[LETZRIDE]

Hmm - where did they see it dripping from? Did they have the front cover off at all? If they saw it physically dripping into the pan I would imagine that would be a massive leak that your coolant would be going low quite quickly?

Did they perform a compression test to rule out the head gasket?

[CamaroJoe]

They pulled the spark plugs and didn't see any fluid on the spark plugs or in the cylinders. When they removed the oil pan and drained all of the oil, that was when they noticed small amount of antifreeze draining from the back of the engine, believe it is leaking from the LIM. They will be removing the upper and lower intake manifold this week which should tell us exacting where the leak is.
(As mentioned before there is no noticeable lost of antifreeze from the antifreeze reservoir)
Will keep you posted on what they find.
.

[LETZRIDE]

So this was a leak outside of the engine versus internally? I would just want to make sure your head gaskets are fine too if you are going to take your manifolds off as the heads are right there.

If you can get them to swap you over to green coolant after you’ll be doing yourself a favour

[CamaroJoe]

Hi guys just sending out an update, thanks for your feedback. Took my to car to a more reputable mechanic several months ago The engine just needed the upper and lower manifold gaskets replaced, also replaced the thermostat. The car has been running great ever since.

Adding pictures of my 2002 Camaro with 123k miles, the only mod is a rear back muffler, that was done by previous owner. This car runs and sounds great.

[ssms5411]

Cool, good to hear you got it taken care of.

[LETZRIDE]

Love the SOM! ;)

Glad you got it resolved!