About three months ago we bought my grand daughter a 1998 Olds 98which had about eighty thousand miles on it I beleive it's a 3800 engine ,nice clean car. Yesterday we found out that it has been losing water and heating up on her and she ran it hot a couple of times its now showing hydrocarbons in the radiator so it has a blow en head gasket or cracked head or heads we won't know till I get it broken down.There is no water in the oil but I found a little moisture on the filler cap.The water will leak out somewhere under the right side when runing, it probably lost a intake gasket that started all this mess and If she would have said something earlier I would have fixed it before it became major but what does a 16 year old know.

The big question is...I've never opened up a fuel injected V6 before, it looks pretty straight forward and I"ve been turning wrenches sense my first scooter at 12, but old age changes things I can't stand for extended periods, I've got a pair of bad legs and hips and I don't want to get this thing half apart and find out I don't have the correct tools or it requires special tools or it's a major pain in the butt for someone who can stand for extenders periods or is it worth doing this repair.Time isn't a big problem but I need this thing done before the winter snows because it will be outside....Any advice would be appreciated...Tedd

 

Probably lower intake gasket , a real common problem with GM cars of those years . The upper or lower intake gasket fails , because of bad design/dexcool antifreeze.

Actually it's more of Dexcool problem then a design issue . I beleive the design issue was with the smaller liter engines , like the 3.1 or 3.4

 

I had a 98 model Olds with the 3.8 V6 too. The upper plenum is a composite plenum and the EGR gasses pass through it in such a way that it eventually burns into the water jacket. GM has a new design upper plenum that corrects this problem. Just hope they are still available. Mine actually hydraulic locked the engine from a cylinder filling with antifreeze.

 

Ted, this would be in a 88 LSS? That should still be a gen 2 3800. You should be fine with the tools you have. My 1995 98 Regency Elite had the same problem with the intake. If you don't feel up to doing the work (I know how awkward it is working over that bad boy) you should be able to get it done at a shop for around 400.00 but it's worth it especially since the car isn't high miles. My intake failed but at 152K miles. 1998 Olds 88's book value are pretty low - depending on model: between 2000 - 3200 so you might be best prepared to decide whether it's worth fixing or buying another car. BTW, the 98 88 and LSS only come with a 3800.

The 3800 series II is arguably one of the better engines GM ever made.

 

I had a '91 98 I drove for several years. I drove it up to about 160,000 miles & never had any major issues with it. Sold it & the girl drove it till she blew the rods out the side of the block cause she never checked/added oil. Was a great car, roomy & decent power. I'd buy another nice one with out hesitation.

 

GM issued a recall on the intake a few years ago IIRC...had a '96 LSS that had the recall completed already when I bought it...had to do it again : banghead: not two months after I bought it.

 

My '98 Lumina with the 3.1 had the same problem, and there was a class action lawsuit, but that did me no good, as they say it failed too long after it was built (7 years), it cost me $500.00 in 2005.

 

Good morning Ted
A couple months ago I changed out the supercharger on my Mom's 1997 Buick Riviera. It's the 3.8 engine and the only tool issue I encountered were some bolts with heads like the male end of a Torx driver. I purchased a set of sockets for this and only used one size. Most of the other fasteners were 10 mm metric bolts. The injectors have thin wire clips and soft blue rubber gaskets on them. This was my first adventure with a fuel injection. I took lots of pictures with my digital camera and spent several days on it. But it worked out fine and I'm sure I saved hundreds of dollars in labor costs vs. taking it to a shop to have done.

John

 

Thanks for the replies / advice the car should be delivered to my house today, been kinda looking to get a project going but wasn't really thinking about a later model car but what the hell I'm going to jump in to it with both feet and see what happnes......Thanks....Tedd

Ps. are these aluminum or iron heads and if aluminum do they have a tendency to crack when over heated?

 

Good luck Ted!

 

See that pisses me off! I had to dump $8000.00 in the course of 4yrs on a POS Chrysler ! No class action lawsuit here , just Chrysler lying and telling me I did not take care of the car ! I will be paying for this debt for the rest of my days .

FYI - I'm pissed at Chrysler not you 1969w3155 just for the record

 

Bryan. Don't feel bad. My 1995 98? I totalled up the bills on that sucker over the 8 years I owned it and they came close to 12,000.00 Course I did almost all the mechanical/hydraulic/electrical on it myself - which saved money. Some of the bigger item costs were exhaust replacement (660.00) rear suspension (1100 - air ride system seized) and body work (you don't want to know). I guess it depends on how much you're willing to spend on a car. That one taught me the value of NOT becoming sentimentally attached to a car. If I'd been smart? I would have sold it the week after I bought it and started with something different.

 

Don't worry...I knew ya weren't. I had a '90 Lincoln Continental the I put $4500.00 into over 6 years, including $848.00 on head gaskets that Ford later said they would cover on all of their cars with the 3.8L V6 up to 100,000 miles, of course mine failed at 102,000, and they would not cover it, and they wonder why people switch to the asian cars.