Hi guys,

I have a 1993 buick regal with the 3800 series I. I was trying to find a misfire, and I read that it is possibly water leaking in from the lower intake manifold so I checked it. Turns out it was a new gasket. When I removed the intake it was clear that the aluminum had corroded around the coolant ports. I cleaned the corrosion off and was left with pitted aluminum so I filled it in with rtv the best i could and reassembled the car with the old gasket following the proper torque and specs sequence.

After waiting 24 hours for the rtv to set I started the car. After about a minute the engine started smoking around both exhaust manifolds. I shut the car off to see coolant and oil mixing and my radiator bubbling like crazy. I did have occasional bubbles when the car was hot before this but now I have alot when the engine is first started.

I ran a compression test. came back with yl#1 - 135, cyl#2 120, cyl#3 120, cyl#4 120, cyl#5 120, cyl#6 110. My question is what is going on? Could the lower intake be bad and be causing the bubbles in the radiator? The car isn't worth much so I don't want to spend money taking it to a mechanic.

Here'* ane example of what the coolant ports looked like:
https://www.google.com/search?q=corr...D3%3B974%3B667

Do the bubbles start right after starting it? If so you might be getting combustion gasses leaking into the cooling system witch means the head gasket is blown.

The bubbles start pretty much right away. The only reason I think it is LIM related is because the bubbling didn't occur at start-up until I removed the manifold. Also compression seemed ok.

Bubbles could be trapped air, but they would go away once the trapped air is gone. There is nothing on the intake side that would account for the bubbles, unless you are losing compression on the intake side, and the gasket is leaking in to a coolant passage.

Some major flags have gone up in my head, with my experience in dealing with these cars:

1. New head gasket. Head gasket failures are unheard of in these cars. The number one cause for head gasket failure is overheating, bad. If it overheated bad enough to take out a head gasket, chances are it over heated bad enough to crack the heads too.
2. The car has recently been hydrolocked. THat seldom makes things happy.
3. If your compression figures are accurate, they are low. A healthy L27 puts compression at 135-160psi across all cylinders pretty consistantly. I have heard the misfire threshold is around 100-120.

How long have you had this car? What is the back story on it?

My gut tells me it may be better to drop in another engine

Thanks for the reply.
I should have mentioned I did the compression test cold.

Background:
I got the car a few months ago from a random guy and have only put 1000 miles on it since. He said there was a new waterpump and radiator so this is in-line with an overheat issue. The car has never overheated for me however the cooling system has some rust. Looks like steel felpro head gaskets. I wouldn't mind if it was a cracked head I could get a new one from the junkyard for $30 but I have to know before I tear down again. I just need to keep it together until May for school, then I can re-evaluate.

Some things just rattled together in my head. Rust in the coolant system is typical with running straight water in the system for a prolonged period of time. Water is typical with a long term leak. Pitting is consistent with long term corrosion, consistent with long term straight water exposure. Running out of coolant and continuing to drive is a great way to crack iron components. If you can get a head for $30, what can you get another engine for? What kind of shape is the rest of the car in, including the tranny?

I can get the block for $100 after core return. I really don't have the equipment or space to do an engine swap tho. The car is nothing special just transportation pretty much. I'd like to get ahead of this issue so I don't have to worry about being stranded every time I go out.

sometimes swapping the engine is easier, you can take the heads off and check the head gaskets and heads and block for warping. but if you find they are its wasted effort because you can get the other stuff cheap. you can rent cherry pickers for fairly reasonable money. but i would go through the new one before hand and put gaskets in it so you dont have to worry about it. a 3800 that is taken care of is an excellent driver because of the reliability. it doesnt seem like yours was taken care of

I believe the words you are searching for are neglected and abused.
But it is a pay in vs reward kind of thing. You drop an engine in, then lose a tranny 2 months later, life gets annoying.

I wish these cars could talk, to tell us what they have been through, what they have survived. We would all be amazed.

I am all for a total loss evaluation at this point