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Hello all.
I’m starting to tear into my first big project since leaving college last year. Just got my license finally (long story) and I was given my parents old car that they replaced last year. A 2002 Pontiac Grand AM (3.4l v6 model) with about 177,000 miles on it and almost all its parts (part of my project is all the much needed front end work). It’s had a bad coolant leak for about a year. Our mechanic told us it was the Intake manifold gasket which from what I’ve read is a well known failure. I took a look at it too and found it to be the same issue ( back side of engine above the transmission were the puddle of coolant is located shown in the pictures). Actually think it is what part of what caused the starter failure I just solved yesterday. The old one was loaded with old gooped up and burnt coolant and was giving me resistance values almost 4 times what it should which prevented it from starting all winter in the bitter cold up here in the north east. Diagnosing work is where I’ve been nervous about what I know because in school I was part of the most trusted group so we got all the steering and suspension and big jobs like that. But thanks to the video Eric did on starter diagnosing I was able to pin point that being the issue not the security system like we originally thought was the issue(I’ve already done the resistor fix on). Which also boosted my confidence big time when it comes to that stuff. Got the new starter in and got it to start up finally yesterday. Now I am looking to take care of the gasket fix. I have found a little information but not totally finding all I need. I’m looking for stuff like procedure, torque specs and so on. I drained and flushed the coolant and found lots of crap from the mechanic trying to fix it with a stop leak. I also drained the oil out of the oil pan and I found the coolant that hadn’t leaked out onto the engine leaked into the oil as it had chocolate milked. I’m also wondering if I should just do the head gaskets too while I am right there to save me work down the road or not? I also have a few ticking valves that I am looking to fix. I’ve looked around and some say there is an adjustment others say just torque the rocker arms. My dad (was a mechanic for a long time) was helping me with the coolant flush earlier and we were talking about it, he said that on our old honda he had to shim them up. So I’m wondering what exactly the procedure is to do that. Thank you for reading this and potentially helping!
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WOW thanks for the book haha but you should maybe think about a service manual from the manufacturer or aftermarket (haynes or gregorys are both good)
They have everything in them procedures torque settings for everything you name it
Is it a DOHC or SOHC engine (1 or 2 camshafts per cylinder head) if its DOHC it is possible that the camshafts act directly on the valves with buckets and shims which can be added and taken away to adjust the valve clearance, if its only 1 cam per head SOHC it will most likely have tappets/rockers which are either adjustable or hydraulic, if they are adjustable you can adjust it with a feeler gauge if its hydraulic make sure your using correct viscosity oil because hydraulic rockers/tappets (whichever you prefer) are not adjustable they rely on oil flow
If you don’t have leaking head gaskets, I’d leave them alone. But me, I don’t like to do work that I don’t have to. As for the valves they aren’t adjustable and messing with them might make things worse rather tan better. I would suggest you just worry about the intake gasket and move on. You really don’t know what else might be lurking under the hood down the road so I think it would be best to save your money for the next project should one come up.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Thank you for your input Yavion and Eric. I didn’t think there was an adjustment but wasn’t sure on it. After thinking about it I’m starting to wonder if the ticking was caused by the fact that the coolant mixed with the oil to the point it was as thin as water. And the ticking never started until the coolant leak did. I got down to the lower intake manifold gasket finally this afternoon after a few fun but long days of working. Never gonna use or let anyone use that liquid gasket stuff ever again. Our old mechanic used it in the car to try to get us by and there is dried up clumps of it in the coolant I drained out, in the hoses and clogging up the ports on the cylinder heads and manifold. After seeing that today we are gonna be taking it down to the block and doing the head gasket as well because we could see they were wrecked too and to get the “gasket repair” stuff out of it and not into the low end of the engine. The heads themselves looked horrible too. There was puddles of coolant in them barely a sign of oil. So much cleaning up and repairing of all the messes and broken stuff we are finding that the hack that used to work on it left behind. Thank you again for the input and help.
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