Head Gasket Help!!!!!!

I have the tools, garage, time and money to this job.
What I don't have is the insight as to what I may encounter during this repair.
If anyone has done this or knows someone who has please reply ASAP.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Having Rivperformance is an excellent asset.
I hope I can contribute as much as I have learned so far.

Need a little more info, Samuel. What engine do you have? Supercharged? How many miles? Also, how do know it's the head gasket? This would be the first time I've ever heard of one going bad on a 3800 V6.

Ill post around 12:30

Looks like you did.

AA wrote:

Looks like you did.

12:30 my time!!!

Doh!!

Alrighty!!!!
If you plan to do this with the motor in the car,
***it might be easier to remove the front top plate over the radiator and the cooling fans. You will want to disconnect the rear and front trans. mounts, side mounts, and either use a lift to support the motor, and then roll the car forward a little bit to rotate the engine and transmision forward to provide better access to the rear cylinder heads. Remove the front cylinder head first to create more room. But first read everything. ****UNLESS YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE EXTRA MOTOR'S WORTH OF NUTS AND BOLTS AND PARTS, ORGANIZE THEM INTO LITTLE SEALABLE ZIPLOC BAGGIES AND MARK THEM.****

1. Take off all accesories, belts, sensors, fuel rails/injectors, and whatever else is on top of the engine. leave the fuel rail attached to the fuel lines and just pull out the injectors with the fuel rail. Try and keep all of your map lines in good condition.

2. pull the supercharger and intake manifold.

3. Remove the exhaust manifolds.

4. Remove the valve covers.

5. set up a box/styrofoam or something where you can organize all of the parts. You must reinstall everything exactly where it came from......OR
-You could beef up your valvetrain a little bit with some rockers/springs/retainers.......Otherwise
-Remove the rockers and pushrods and itemize them together as mentioned above.

6. remove the cylinder head bolts, and then remove the cylinder head.

I would highly suggest reinstalling ARP HEAD STUDS instead of the head bolts. They are much stronger and make reinstallation of the gaskets and heads very precise/lined up. as For head gaskets, You can go with stockers or there is COMETIC MLS (Multi layer steel) gaskets.

Closely examine where the damaged gasket is and assess the cause. Hopefully, its not too bad inside. Reinstallation is the opposite. I would advise you to pick up a grand prix haines manual. There are torque specs on www.3800.com on the lower left side menu.

Ill also take a look at ALLDATA and see if they have guides to perform this task also. But this should get you by for a while.

3800 SC 66,000miles and very clean. This is why I am having a hard time believing this to be true

My mechanic ran some kind of test that turned blue solution into green and this is why he said it is leaking into the motor.
I did a pressure test on the radiator and I was losing pressure over five minutes.
No leak under the car or visible signs of leaking in the radiator.
I asked a few other mechanics around me for there advice and the general cocensus is there is some small amount of leaking. Nothing major yet.
The guy who ran the test said I have a few months before I should worry. I worried right away. I want to get this thing fixed immediately!

Thanks for all the replies so far.
I feel like I am no longer fighting this battle with a butter knife!
You guys ROCK!

Let us know when you fix this, if the HG was the problem. Take a few pics if you do it yourself. Best of luck!

I had one of 2 things going on in my motor, either the block was cracked from the 3" pulley i put on and that gradually leaked and blew it up, ot I had a blown head gasket in which there was white smoke coming out the tail pipes in september. Almost as if it were winter time. this is a wild and wierd idea, but you could try putting like a whole bottle of food coloring in the coolant and wait to see if it is burning colors through your exhaust? I dont know if it will filter through the mufflers and cat, but its not gonna hurt the motor.

dude i really wanna put food coloring into my gas tank now.............. sounds like funnnnnnn..............

I've been watching her closely the last few days and.....
She's holding steady.('')

Sam, two things:

You were not 100% clear, are you losing coolant?

It may NOT be you head gaskets. It could just as easily be your lower intake manifold gaskets OR the gasket between your SC and Intake manifold.

Infact because your car is stock, I would say it may be more likely that it is your lower intake manifold gaskets. These are plastic and have been known to degrade and weep coolant. GM has switched over to a metal gasket which will not degrade. I would try to replace these gaskets before the HGs, they are not very difficult. And you dont want to mess with your factory installed HGs unless you absolutly have to.

Point Number 2: If you end up doing the head gaskets, you MUST use teflon tape or sealant on the head gasket bolts. These bolts tap in to the water jacket and need to be sealed.

98riviera98 wrote:

dude i really wanna put food coloring into my gas tank now.............. sounds like funnnnnnn..............

I dont quite know how the food coloring would react since its water based, but i would imagine your exhaust would be red......or the would be really cool if it worked like that without bad sideeffects.

Over the last week I have lost very little coolant and my temp seems normal as well. It''s usually around 190 to 200. No coolant in the oil either. My mechanic told me the 3800SC run around that temp but I would like be cooler. I'm just not sure if changing the stat will have an adverse effect in the winter months.
Thanks everyone for the info.
('')

Cooler stats don't cause the car to heat up more slowly in winter, they only limit how hot the engine gets while driving. With a 180 t-stat, you'll see 185-195 F most of the time, closer to 180 F in colder months. I keep my 180 in all year round, and still get plenty of heat in winter. Maybe if I lived in N. Dakota I'd worry about it, but seems to be just fine in the midwest.

Sounds good!
I think this weekend will be perfect for working on that.
Thanks again everyone for the helpful info.

('')
Thanks everyone for the helpful info.
Here's an update on what was thought to be a Head Gasket problem.
My coolant level has been the same for two weeks and the temp has been fine also.
I do lose about a half a quart of oil about every four weeks but this worries me not.
I heard the bolts for the pan go through the block and the oil comes down the threads. This is to be expected. Any feedback?

I've never heard of that. If you're loosing a quart oil that often, I'd expect to see drips on the ground. Try putting a piece of cardboard under the car. If you're not dripping, it could be burning oil. Ever see smoke come out the back? If you are leaking, might be the oil pan gasket, or one of the seals.

Park in the driveway and have never seen a drop. (Clean Driveway!)
I thought the same but also have never seen smoke.
There does seem to be a little oil around the pan gasket.
No puddles or heavy buildup.
Thought to change the seal but I was told this is normal.
I tend to lean more to what I learn on the forum rather than someone who doesn't own a Riv.

AA wrote:

........... I keep my 180 in all year round, and still get plenty of heat in winter. Maybe if I lived in N. Dakota I'd worry about it, but seems to be just fine in the midwest.

I'm not worried about my 180 here in Fargo, but this will be the first winter with it. With our relatively small interior space, I just don't see there being a heating problem, should warm up just fine. We aren't all that much colder here in the Upper Midwest.