need GM help

[5sp. mini]

i know some of you guys have GMs i,m working on my dads 94 firebird with a 3800 v6 looks like a buick motor . has water in the oil so i pulled the upper intake and the lower intake. but on the lower part there was a 90deg. plasitc tube that went from the water pump houseing to the intake. just broke right off. looks to just slide in there? any help from someone who has been there. there was know miss firering or signs it was no more than back intake gasket leaking into the valley. alan

[JDAWG]

as far as your plastic tube thing I cant remember, If i remember right it pushed in, and there were 2 types, take the old one to a GM dealership. Your oil/coolant issue, my moms car did that, plus overheating. It was in fact the intake gasket, all that crap in the middle for the intake. I talked to a GM tech, working at a car dealership has its perks, I thought it was headgaskets. Buy one from a GM, its supposedly updated. It was a pain in the ---, you have to pull push rods and alot of stuff, but moms is runnin a year strong now, no probs, no overheating.

[ShelbyTurbo]

You can find that plastic tube at just about any place that has a Motormite "help" isle. The kit is around 20 bucks and comes with both sizes of tubes. The tube pushes right in and seals with an 'o' ring between the waterpump/belt tensioner housing and the intake.

Probably this little guy right here.

https://www.dormanproducts.com/cgi-bin/vm91corp30r/item-dtl.w?sid=0x0128ab8d&item=47065&icrid=&clt=hwrap1&vsrch_str=&vsrch_brand=all&vsrch_cat=Heater%20Hose%20Connectors&st_amount=&end_amount=&start=&vfrom=&prev=&vnext=&category_list=1376:992:0

[turbovanman²]

^^ Yep, you nailed it.


Intakes are common for leaking and some crack as well. Dorman also makes an intake. If you can post up pics of the gaskets, we can tell if there blown. Usually the rubber is surrounded by plastic and the plastic gives up.

warningDO NOT overtighten the intake bolts, follow the torque specs or you'll be doing it again next week. You don't need to remove the pushrods on a 3800, just the 3100's, :thumb:

[ShelbyTurbo]

I kinda figured that was what he was talking about, I've had to replace a few. I just did the intake gasketts on my mom's Astro van, I wouldn't recommend it...

[turbovanman²]

Doing an intake on Astro's? not that bad a job, try head gaskets, :mecry:

[5sp. mini]

there both cast aluimin . no plastic parts , in the felpro book it listed firebird and camaro differant. and also a first and sec. made sec. is 97 and up his is a 95. the one runner on the drive side was tore and all milky . no to bad as far as build up but some small toothpick like thing found 3 of them 2 to 3 inchs long. have to clean my bolts and holes out and get gaskets. alan

[ShelbyTurbo]

Doing an intake on Astro's? not that bad a job, try head gaskets, :mecry:

The thing that made it worse was that it was the first time I've had the intake off of the 4.3, that and going from inside the van and back outside at regular intervals. Other than that it was pretty straight forward. The whole time I wished it was my dad's Blazer instead.

The worst was when I had to do head gaskets on a G-van, straight up pulled the seats out of that one just to get more room to work. I pulled the intake off of that and aborted the job when I found large pieces of carbon in the intake valley, some bigger than a golf ball! Poor van was not taken care of very well.

[turbovanman²]

Believe it or not, I prefer to do G-vans, more room, :nod: