81,000 mile blown engine WTF?!?!?!

Well, it happened, and of coarse that the worst possible time. I'll try to keep this as closly related to the car and not my life in general.. and i'll try to spell things out and actually use technical terms instead of "that one white piece right there on the engine".....

Keep in mind my factory warrenty was due March 13 or 90k which ever came first this even happened 2 weeks after march 13... sucks to be me..


Ok well after saving up a little bit of cash, i desided to take care of some things on my car that probly needed replacing and working on, it was the 3k oil change time, and I purchased; AcDelco RapidFire ($5 spark plugs), and 7.5mm HighPerformace B&W SparkPlug Wires, Castrol Full Synthetic 10-30w ($5/quart of oil) a Fram Extended Guard oil filter, a new fuel filter, and a new gator belt...whew...$200 later i'm working on my car... after doing all this work my car made a funny 'whining' noise for a few seconds after starting it.... this happened everytime I let the engine sit,cool off, and then restart it...well i noticed that i was 1/2 quart low so i added some oil..then my check engine light came on after about an hour of driving... pull in to autozone to have them run the el-cheapo diagnostic really quick cylender 1 misfire... pull spark plug... gaped at .060 likes it suppose to.. and looks fine.. clean and shiny like new... checked the wire... all good.. shocked the shit outa myself...ok well started the car... light went away... oh well continued on well life....low coolent light came on 1 or 2 days later... filled the radiator...problem solved..kinda...drove to the mall the next day... car started to get a bit warm... and a 'ticking' noise was now emittig from my engine bay area... well put some stp oil treatment in there and it stoped...and RE-FILLED MY COOLENT AGAIN!!! Monday last week I climb into my car to go off to work and my car turns over really rough and this is ther massvie knocking noise coming from my engine...then the noise faded into that damn 'ticking' noise again.. and then stoped... so i drove my car just around the block and sure enough coolent low again... so i filled it drove around again...

ok btw... the entire time; NO SMOKE, NO DROP IN ENGINE PERFORMANCE, NO UNUSUAL SMELLS COMING FROM MY CAR....

and so i went to work..i got off at 6pm i climb in my car and it cranks ... but it doesn't turn over... it cranks and cranks and its sounds like SHIT...i almost had a heart attack.. moments after that is when i acctually found out about my warrenty...AAA it to my house were there... i reached down pulled my spark plug wire off... reached for that 5/8 deep socket... pulled out that $5 spark plug and found what could at that point been my worse nightmare... a spark plug COVERED in oil and gasoline and DEBRIS!! *sigh*:mad: :mad: :mad: anyways...i've narrowed it down to what it is NOT; fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, or my injectors... but other than that... i'm not sure what exatally it could be... i've completely preped my engine bay for pulling... i'm ordering rebuild parts... rings, gaskets, and finding a good machine shop...


if anybody, anybody at all has any insite to things that could have caused this... please let me know..i need all the help i can get.. and all the experianced knowlege i can get too!!! thanks..... for your time.. if you read all that shit.....

hey man, shit happens, don't let it get you down!:flash:

Start with a compression check on all cylinders. If the cyl. in question is close to the others, I'd be thinking a head gasket problem allowing coolent to enter combustion camber.

Check no1: Lift oil cap & look for mayonnaise (no?)

Check no2: Squeeze radiator hose. If it's solid I'd say your gasket had gone.

Goodluck (P.S. if it is your Gasket get your head skimmed at the same time. it doesn't cost that much and it may stop it happening again)

Splitfire plugs and HT leads don't really have any noticeable effect on a shopping motor BTW.

Our Lumina recently had a leaking intake manifold which allowed the coolant to leak into the crankcase which gave some of the same symptoms. Luckily we caught it before any major engine damage.

Well with the amount of coolant you added would be a sure bet it went somewhere. My guess is it went into the engine and destroyed the crank and bearings. The crank and bearings don't like coolant!

I am pretty sure you have a 3.1L engine and they are known to had lower intakes gaskets go on them causing your problem. Usually the leak woud be external but sometimes it is internally just depends on where the gasket breaks.

There's a couple ideas that come to mind with what you said. I don't know what kinda motor you have though, 2.8, 3.1, 3.4? Could be blown head gasket, broken timing belt/chain. I believe the build up on the spark plug you noticed is from trying to crank the motor over for some time, without firing to burn off the gas and such. Drain you oil and check for water. If indeed the coolant did go into your engine then it would have to end up somewhere, water is heavier then oil so that will be the first thing that comes out. I would do a compression check as well, but be care. It would really help if you could tell us what size motor you have.

One thing Hiflow forgot to mention if the coolant leaked into the intake manifold it would get burned up and spit out the exhaust! There would be no sign of it in the oil then!

Originally posted by Flatrater
One thing Hiflow forgot to mention if the coolant leaked into the intake manifold it would get burned up and spit out the exhaust! There would be no sign of it in the oil then!

True, but he did say there was no smoke. You would see a some smoke or possibly smell it, if the coolant was burned out through the exhaust.

well guys this is mitch946's new account i couldn't find my previous account info, and i wanted to change my name soo.... ne ways here what happened:rolleyes:

EGR valve dumps hot exhuast from my..... exhaust to my lower intake manifold which inturns directs it on to my upper (plastic) intake manifold via a 1/4" metal tube. That tube then melts into a water jacket located just 2mm away from the hole alowing water/coolent mixure to be sucked in for a few days before the car looses all compression. This has been known to happen alot between 70-110k miles on all 3.8liters with the plastic upper intake manifold and GM as not done much to correct this problem, but hey heres the good news that brand new upper intake and the new gasket that wasn't covered by my warrenty only cost me $200....:banghead:

:swear: WELL HERES A BIG :flipa: GM


And well Im now a better person with out my lumina and currently vehicleless..... however i am taking my money to a honda dealership really soon but...:gives: