Hi all,

Kind of ironic that I started reading this forum about the same time my upper intake went. I just finished the replacement this past Sunday. Changed the oil and filter last night and filled the radiator. I pulled the fuel pump fuse and spark plug wires from the coils and cranked the engine for a few minutes to circulate some fresh oil in the engine. Replaced the fuse and wires and cranked her over. The engine started right off and I thought cool!!! looks like I got it back together right!

So I left it sit in the driveway and run for awhile. Was running good, so I took it around the block and then out onto the road. I ran it for awhile at about 50mph and then started to hear an intermittent squeal so I headed home. The squeal became more noticeable as I got closer to home but would come and go as I accelerated and decelerated. Sitting in the driveway with the engine running the squeal sounded like the water pump. I turned the engine off, took off the belt and restarted the engine. The squeal was still there.

Know I'm thinking the engine bearings may be gone. I've never heard a bad engine bearing squeal though. Anybody have any ideas? Oh ya, my Bonneville is a '98 with only 71,000 mile on it.

Is the squeal high-pitched, or low? Does it sound muffled? Does it increase and decrease pitch with engine RPM'* or vehicle speed? Can you tell which side of the engine it'* coming from? High or low?

and are you losing oil pressure?

Definitely high pitched and it doesn't sound muffled. You would swear it was coming from the the water pump but is hard to pinpoint. I'm going to have to listen to it again to see if it changes pitch with engine rpm. Oil pressure is a shade over 40 when cold and drops to about 25-30 when hot. It'* got me scratching my head.

I'm going to check for a vacuum leak tonight. Sure hope it'* not the engine bearings.

isnt 25-30 a little low?

mmm...a little but I think its ok. If you started it and it was 25psi I'd be worried. Uhmm...best bet is to get a stethoscope and see if you can find the noise. The engine can really transfer sound, heck it could even be the transmission you just really never know until you can pin point it....that was kind of a "duh" statement, but its true! haha

The last time I replaced the intake gaskets on my '92, I ended up with a kind of squeel. It did not sound like a belt.

Well, I remembered that I had lost one of the two mounting bolts for the alternator and thought that I could get along without one of them for a day or two. Really, one bolt, I figured, would keep the thing from falling off for a while anyway. Using only one bolt was allowing the alternator to vibrate and make a noise resembling a banshee! The alternator was NOT loose however! I would imagine that a mis-tightened bolt might make the same noise. You might want to check all bolts. Maybe you'll get lucky.

He still had the squeal with the belt off.

Senior moment...........my bad!

I know the feeling!

Actually, the fact that he had the belt removed and still has the sound has me really concerned, but I don't wanna scare the poor guy.