96 Chevy Lumina 3.1L Intake or head Gasget?

DANNY_R

MEMBER
1996 CHEVROLET TRUCK

Hi everyone. I've got a 96 Lumina with the 3.1L which has 89,000 miles. I was doing a routine checkup on the fluids and unscrewed the radiator cap and was horrified to find oil spewing out, looked like runny peanut butter! I flushed the cooling system the best I could but oil is very hard to remove. I began reading about the 3.1 and how its prone to intake gasket failure. However what’s puzzling me is if it was an intake gasket failure then surely I’d have water leaking somewhere from the engine? And if it was head gasket failure then I’d probably have steam coming from the exhaust! But in my case I don't. So what do you guys think it could be?

Kind Regards

Danny

3 Replies

MIKEYBDMAN

MECHANIC
623 POSTS

I would guess head gasket, but I have been wrong before. Start taking it aprat and see if you can find the leak at the intake. If not, remove the heads and see if the gaskets are starting to leak. I know on the 3.1L the push rods go thru the edge of the intake, so it is possible the oil could have gotten in there.

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Monday, August 28th, 2006 AT 2:49 PM

SYNCRAIT

MECHANIC
235 POSTS

I agree on the intake gasket but if your worried about the head gasket you can always do a compression check. Also if your up to it the intake gasket is usually one of the easiest to replace yourself if you have a spare afternoon and a load of patience. Good luck lemme know :)

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Thursday, August 31st, 2006 AT 6:11 AM

FLINTBRAD

MEMBER
3 POSTS

I think you should check the radiator tank on the transmission side to see if it has an internal crack. Also check if your transmission fluid is low. It may be going into the radiator. If you think you may have a bad headgasket you might want to have the engine block tested to see if you are getting exaust gases in your radiator. And pressure test the cooling system to see if you are loosing coolant into any of the oil systems. If the radiator has pressure in it, then you should see the leak from the gaskets on the head or intake. You should also check the oil in the car and see if you see milky white condensation on the dip stick or in the oil fill cap.

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Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 AT 9:55 PM