ARX in my Buick's 3800 V6.

[sciphi]

Here's a picture of my 1999 Buick LeSabre's 3800 Series II V6's lifter valley when the lower intake manifold came off to replace the lower intake manifold gaskets (with GM aluminum gaskets) and upper intake manifold this past weekend at ~67,500 miles. The car first saw Auto-RX at ~35k miles 2 years ago, and was on a maintenance dose until about 10k miles ago.

We caught the gaskets in time too.

 

[tomcat27]

very cool! although it looks all too familiar as I did this repair 2 weeks ago on a 2000 Grand Prix. it was easier than I imagined, although I did get stuck in a couple places. I see that you also broke the silly plastic "L" tube.

 

[-Clayton-]

Looks clean.

 

[JohnBrowning]

It looks just like it would look had a quality GIII synthetic or better been used in it!

 

[greenaccord02]

If you had used MMO you could actually see your reflection in the mirror finish that it would have inside.

Just kidding, it looks really good.

 

[Oilpants]

Stephe has said repeatedly it doesnt mater at all how it looks under the valve cover's only piston rings and other surfasses subjected to frictoin do!!! Jsut because it looks clean under the valve cover's doesnt mean other arias are just as clean!!

 

[kaboom10]

Glad u got them before they blew. Had to do that to an old car we had way before then. Sold it just before the headgaskets failed. Glad I was working at McCord gasket.Sure looks nice in there. I'm starting ARx in my sis n laws 4 banger this oil change. She puts some miles on it fast.

 

[sciphi]

Thanks, folks!

The pictures I'm not showing are the ported/polished lower intake manifold and chamfered head ports that the car now has. It's a noticeable difference.

 

[kaboom10]

When I was making my nascar grand national engine for a camaro I had they ported the eads to Buick ports. Oh yeah woke the motor right up.

 

[Jim 5]

I'll bite,

I've rebuilt a few engines, but for the life of me I can't figure out what that wavy shaft is running down the center of the lifter valley.

Can someone enlighten me?

 

[-Clayton-]

It's the balance shaft.

 

[kaboom10]

More than likely a counter balance shaft. When I built my street hot rod the journals weren't offset as in other v6s to dampen the firing pulses it was balanced but had the inherit vibration. Mine was a pure race block that had no provisions for a bar. It didn't even come with lifter galleys machined. Well the distributor had to be modified to a Buick V6 pickup from the seventies I think.

 

[Jim 5]

Interesting. Until this point, I don't know that I've ever seen an image of a balance shaft, though at times I remember wondering what "internally balanced" engines looked like as compared to the external balancer on the typical small block.

I really do learn something new every day on BITOG. Thanks for posting this image.

 

[kaboom10]

You should see the mickey mouse setup that was on the bottom end of the pontiac 4 cylinder engine from back in the 80s.

 

[sciphi]

So that's what that thingy is!

When the manifolds came off, all I was concerned about was the condition of the manifold gaskets. That's about the one weak point on this engine. Now that those are fixed with aluminum gaskets instead of nylon, it's onto the next point of failure.

 

[kaboom10]

I was lucky enuff to get a job at McCord gasket co when the program to phase out asbestos was starting. Solid gaskets like aluminum or copper are great but prohibitive cost wise for a production car. A graphite based gasket was found to be a good replacement. Does everything that asbestos did and more. I half burned down a motor with those on and didn't hurt the gaskets. I would say the head gaskets are next to pop. I would go with the graph pack gasket as a replacement. If u still have the engine down put on a pair.

 

[sciphi]

kaboom, I'm not too worried about the headgaskets since the folks pushing 350+ ponies haven't blown stock headgaskets and my motor is a well-maintained stock motor. I've never heard of a headgasket failure on a 3800. I've heard plenty of folks being burned by failed lower intake manifold gaskets like the ones just replaced. Silly GM putting old, acidic Dex-Cool next to nylon-66 and cranking the heat to 200+ degrees. There's a reason they went with the same aluminum gaskets I put on my car on the production 3800 Series III.

I appreciate your concern, though!

 

[kaboom10]

Then they did their homework on that engine knowing it was gonna be stressed hard. Then they scrinp on the intakes. Go figure. The concern is I still remember how much fun it was doing the intakes on the 86 camaro. I can still feel my back and didn't have problems. lol Just hate to see u have to redo what you've done and more. I plan to go the route with my 5.4L mod motor when the geads/cams get replaced. Head studs and the high buck gaskets. Maybe I can get my kid to pull the motor? lol

 

[sciphi]

If there had been any question of the head gaskets, they would have been replaced at the same time. It would have been another 3-4 hours work to pull the heads from where we dug down to in the picture I posted. All that stuff has to come off to get to the heads anyhow.

I hear you on the lower IM gaskets. Utter inanity on GM's part. Oh well, it's fixed on my unit.

Hand your kid some Blaster, a Sharpie, sandwich baggies for all the bolts, a set of wrenches and tell him to call you out when he runs into a problem. That's what my dad did to me a few times, and I turned out okay.

 

[kaboom10]

Looks like u have it under control then.

Took a few minutes to quit laughing about what to do to the kid. My dad made the mistake not looking over my shoulder when I was alone in the garage. He didn't care for my creations.