neighbour's having problems

[Mike88]

My neighbor just bought a 95 3.8 Camaro with 170k miles for dirt cheap. The car runs great, but its leaking oil. There's quite a bit of oil on top of the intake and on the ground when he parks for a while. He also has oil in his antifreeze and he's losing about a litre of oil every 300 miles. Any ideas of what might be his problem?

[ssms5411]

Re: neighbour's having problems

I'm not a mechanic but I'll throw out a guess of head gasket and maybe valve cover , and intakes leaking. And say not to drive it until it is fixed, unless he wants to replace the engine. There is a reason he got it dirt cheap.

[kristen]

Re: neighbour's having problems

if there is coolant in the oil then he needs a head gasket. sounds like he also might need an upper intake gasket and maybe valve covers

[David8399]

Re: neighbour's having problems

had the same problem on my 96. oil cooler was leaking into the radiator. put new radiator in and it fixed it.

[sceneiskeen]

Re: neighbour's having problems

Rear main seal

Im no mechanic.
but couuld this be causing it?

[Sean_99_3.8]

Re: neighbour's having problems

Rear main seal

Im no mechanic.
but couuld this be causing it?

no because its in the transmission.
if it was leaking tranny fluid then yes maybe.

[98 3.8]

Re: neighbour's having problems

Rear main seal is actually in the engine. However, that's not gonna cause you to have oil on top of your intake and coolant in the oil.

Sounds to me like it could be just the lower intake gasket. That's actually a notorious problem for the 3800 engine.

[Mike88]

Re: neighbour's having problems

yeah he bought the car knowing its problems, but wanted it anyways. He's not driving it now because the oil is dripping off the intake onto his exhaust which could cause a fire. Thanks guys...I'll pass the word on and i'm sure he'll appreciate it. I'll keep you guys posted too.

[Mike88]

Re: neighbour's having problems

PS...what kind of repair costs is he looking at for head gasket, upper intake gasket and valve covers?

[ssms5411]

Re: neighbour's having problems

I'll take a guess, for upper/lower intake gaskets, head gaskets and valve covers with parts and labor at the dealer would be around $1200.00 but a local mechanic would be half that at around $600 to $800. Or he could do it himself for the parts of the gaskets maybe $100 to $200, but he might as well put in new spark plugs, spark plug wires, thermo, and pvc valve. Change oil and filter after the heads, intakes and valve covers are done. Maybe new fuel filter, air filter, check the trans fuild,and rear end fuild. Should be good to go after that. I would do this anyway since it was a used car, and who knows what the other owner didn't do, or did do.

[Mike88]

Re: neighbour's having problems

can you remove the heads to change the head gasket while the engine is in the engine bay or do you have to pull/lift the engine?

[ssms5411]

Re: neighbour's having problems

No, you do not need a lift, everything is done up top.

[bah]

Re: neighbour's having problems

had the same problem on my 96. oil cooler was leaking into the radiator. put new radiator in and it fixed it.

we dont have an oil cooler, i'm not sure where you are talking about

[ssms5411]

Re: neighbour's having problems

we dont have an oil cooler, i'm not sure where you are talking about

I didn't catch that one, I hope he meant tranny fuild.