GM 3.1 Engine

[tonto1]

Our son is looking at a 1998 Monte Carlo with the 3.1 engine.  The car has 45K mi.  and it appears that the coolant has never been changed .
It still has that  brownish looking coolant, that if I'm correct, GM says is supposed to last 100K mi (LOL).
I've read several boards where people seem to have a lot of trouble with coolant getting in the oil past the intake manifold gasket.
Anyone have any experience.
I'd appreciate any advice.

Harry

[CruZer]

The 2.8;3.1 and 3.8 V6's have plastic intake manifolds and gaskets that crack after awhile. This lets the anti-freeze into the cylinders,etc. It's become a common enough problem that the prices for replacement parts have come way down.
I was fine until I flushed and changed the anti-freeze in my Bonneville, then $700 later I had a new intake manifold and gasket. That was 2 years ago. Car has been fine ever since, but I know a guy who has owned three Buick 3.8's and has had this happen to all three of them. The last one even had an aluminum manifold.

[tomslik]

Our son is looking at a 1998 Monte Carlo with the 3.1 engine.  The car has 45K mi.  and it appears that the coolant has never been changed .
It still has that  brownish looking coolant, that if I'm correct, GM says is supposed to last 100K mi (LOL).
I've read several boards where people seem to have a lot of trouble with coolant getting in the oil past the intake manifold gasket.
Anyone have any experience.
I'd appreciate any advice.

Harry

they USUALLY leak externally 0n the 2.8,3.1+3.4 engines and they are aluminum, not plastic.
the 3.3 and 3.8's were plastic and POTENTIALLY bad news .
get her flushed asap and if you end up with a leaky intake gaskets and you're gonna fix it yourself, get a hold of me and i'll tell ya a few tricks and save ya some time.

[40_Tudor]

Our son is looking at a 1998 Monte Carlo with the 3.1 engine.  The car has 45K mi.  and it appears that the coolant has never been changed .
It still has that  brownish looking coolant, that if I'm correct, GM says is supposed to last 100K mi (LOL).
I've read several boards where people seem to have a lot of trouble with coolant getting in the oil past the intake manifold gasket.
Anyone have any experience.
I'd appreciate any advice.

Harry

they USUALLY leak externally 0n the 2.8,3.1+3.4 engines and they are aluminum, not plastic.
the 3.3 and 3.8's were plastic and POTENTIALLY bad news .
get her flushed asap and if you end up with a leaky intake gaskets and you're gonna fix it yourself, get a hold of me and i'll tell ya a few tricks and save ya some time.

We do about one a month of these GM intakes at the shop I work at. They start leaking at the corners and usualy leak externaly. Not sure if its related to bad antifreeze, I think its just a bad design. The plastic intakes are not quite as bad.

[tonto1]

Thanks for the advice