hey! where is the progress? lol....

Hello, guys... i have just blown out my head gasket due to a overheating, and i believe their was a leak to begin with (hopefully it was from the head gasket itself).

i have a friend a little more knowledgeable i am going to ask to help me; my question was:

for my 1998 SE 3800 V6 (tansverse) engine, where exactly are my headgaskets located? around the top area?

i'm wondering how easy they are to being accessed, or will the engine have to be lifted in order to change them?

also, if you could:
my coolant or water seemed to have had a small leak previously (we thought it was the cold winter air, as it seemed to stop the next day), but then as soon as the weather switched up, my coolant seemed to vanish, and BAM, over heated / blown head gasket. any ideas where it might be coming from? LIM or bad waterpump or radiator or something?

the mechanic said she is starting now, but he sees the oil and coolant is mixed..
so i was wondering, if you thought i could drive her to my house (roughly 3 blocks away from the shop) if i add some coolant in there... without doing any damage to the engine...

also, if i do drive it those few blocks, what should i listen for / be observing to alert me if there is already engine trouble?

*** Moved to own thread for better visibility - Kevin ***

If you have coolant in the oil - DO NOT DRIVE IT! You will cause severe engine damage.

It'* probably not a head gasket. Those seem to be bullet strong on our cars. More than likely it'* your upper intake manifold gasket. They are not too bad to change actually. Check this out https://www.gmforum.com/t278911/

If you have coolant in the oil do not even start the engine. It'* far more likely the coolant came from a blown LIM gasket, not a head gasket.

ok. thanks.

so, in reference to the coolant mixing with the engine oil. i have to drain and clean it out, and then replace it with new oil before trying to start up the car?

and if we are going to replace one of them, might as well replace all the gaskets, no?

Drain the oil, then fill it with the cheapest oil you can find. Start it, shut it down and drain the oil out again right away. Try to get the front of the car up as high as you can to help drain out as much oil from the pan as you can.

Yes, change both LIM gaskets. You can't reuse them.

i meant if it would be worth bother changing LIM UIM (and maybe) head gasket

my frat brother may know how to identify whether or not the LIM or UIM, or even the head gasket needs to be replaced, but

what exactly should i be looking for to identify that that'* where the problem is coming from?



**** And thanks again (in advance) for offering me your help and knowledge.

To check if the head gasket has failed you need to do a compression test. If all cylinders hold about the same pressure the gasket is fine. If there is 1 cylinder with lf pressure it'* more likely a valve, two side be side low pressure cylinders is a bad head gasket.

To check UIM you can remove the throttle body and look inside the intake. You will more then likely see coolant around the EGR hole.

For a LIM gasket you may see coolant pooling up around the top of the heads near the LIM.

so the mechanic said that the oil is pretty milky -- from all the coolant,
and that he suggests not fixing it, because
most likely it'* gotten around the bearings and will last only 1 or 2 weeks before they go out....

how accurate is this and, what should i do?
the coolant must have been in there for about a week - or almost 2 weeks.

Gulp. Did you say coolant was in your oil for almost 2 weeks?

The bearings are probably toast.

Ethylene glycol is nasty stuff.

yea, and they said they did a compression test, and that'* how they diagnosed it as the head gasket.