Alrighty, I'm going to start off by giving a list of symptoms and hopefully anyone will be able to help me out with this. I'm crossing my fingers that what I think is wrong with my baby isn't, but I'd like an idea before my car goes into the stealership on Friday for any required work.

1997 Camaro, 89k kms on it. 3.8L V6, manual tranny. Car has not had any major problems save for replacing the alternator and some sludge in the radiator a couple years ago.

I recently had my oil changed and summer tires put back on the car. The tech made the comment to me that my coolant was really low, but had a fair bit of sludge, almost a gel in consistency. He showed me the rad cap and it looked almost like a turd on the underside. He did not make any mention of any milky looking fluid in the oil. He topped off the coolant and power steering, did the oil change, etc. He suggested it could be a head-gasket problem. The car seems to be running fine, with no noticable change in performance.

The temperature gauge shows 75 as a low, 100 as mid and 125 as a high. When driving from work to my home uphill, I've noticed that the temperature climbs from 75 to the mid point, to 100, up and down, depending on whether I go uphill or downhill. Nothing overheating at 125, but the rapid change causes me some concern. When the car is stopped, there is a slight sweet smell. No visible steam coming from the exhaust, no odd noises. There is a slight whistling sound as I drive, but I had previously noticed that when I installed a K&N air filter. The K&N filter is currently being cleaned and I still hear a slight whistling.

On my way home, I turned on the air conditioning and the heater, just as a test. The air conditioning worked fine, and when switching to the dash vents, the heater worked fine as well. When the temperature was higher, the air coming out was warmer, given that the heating system makes use of engine heat I assume.

I have not had a radiator flush in around 2 years. The car uses Dexcool. When the dealership asked what the issue was, I told them it's suspected to be a head-gasket, so I would like a compression test done. I have also heard that the 3.8L engines may have issues with lower intake gaskets.

Anyone have any advice/comments/suggestions?

 

it sounds like u may have a cat. convt. problem ,...or a bad alternator bearing

 

What are you talking about?



Anyways, I would bet you have a lower intake gasket problem and head gasket is fine. This is a very well know problem. I had mine go out with about 90k miles and had alot of same symptoms. It will lead to bigger problems if not fixed but I left mine bad for almost 2 years before i had serious issues. I was young and no money in military so couldn't afford to fix it. I would think you could have it fixed for about $500 US dollars at a stealership here but I really dont know and thats just a guess. Complete gasket set will cost you about $100 from a parts store.

 

Turns out that it is the lower intake and the water pump, with a rad flush needed. 1 grand later... She'll be good to go.

 

yeah my intake gasket had issues too at one point. damn thing was completely cracked but it's fixed now. I just need new O2 sensors and I should be good.