3800 series II newb....

[2GeclipseRST]

Alright. Car is a 97 park ave. Less than 80k on the odometer.......

Now, the heater elbow on the tensioner was leaking. We replaced that along with the revised upper intake and egr tube. The car was still leaking, somewhere around the belt area. I did the water pump yesterday, put the ps pump back in and we cranked it up. Still leaking coolant. It dripped a little at first. The car warmed up and no more coolant leak. As soon as we shut the car off, it started pissing out.

It gathers at the top of the oil filter and drips off of it but we have no idea where else it can be leaking from.

Any ideas?


P.S. Working on these cars is so frustrationg..... I wouldn't trade my eclipse for anything after working on a park ave. I'll be so glad when it's fixed.... Not looking to modify the 3800 at all, i just want help fixing it.

Thanks.

[BillBoost37]

Once you work on the 3800 some more, you'll find it is probably easier than the Eclipse.

You changed the upper manifold and coolant elbow from the sound of it. Assuming you also changed the lower intake manifold gaskets as well, or did you pull the alternator tensioner bracket to swap the elbow?

There is a second elblow right above the ps pump. Ensure you lube the orings before inserting the elbows or you can damage the o rings and cause a leak.

[2GeclipseRST]

O-rings lubed. The crank pulley stays pretty wet. No moisture anywhere near the ps pump.....

I pulled the tensioner. That thing gave me hell. The cast elbow that goes into the block/lower intake manifold DID NOT WANT TO POP OUT. I finally got it and installing the elbow was even more of a pain than removing the old one.

Nope, working on my neon powered non turbo eclipse is waaay easier. I can get to everything pretty easily. I spun a rod bearing so i'm rebuilding and bolting a 2g dsm t25 onto it to run around 11 pounds until i have enough money to rebuild my hks gt series snail.... I've removed the head, tranny, axles......etc. It's easy. There's so much going on and so many parts linked to other parts on the 3800 that it makes it a HUGE headache but i'm getting used to it and comfortable working on it now.

I'm going to add some bull**** gimmick leakstop stuff (got copper and some other formula if the other doesn't work). If it doesn't fix the problem, i'm pulling a 3800 from a nissan. I found one at a junkyard about 5 months ago (hunting for a turbocharger for my eclipse), popped the hood and to my amazement, a 3800 v6 was under the hood. Metal idler, metal upper intake...metal metal metal.... Surprising a gm motor found it's way into a nissan with all metal parts but in a buick, plastic this, plastic that.....

I'll be here to stay though. The car isn't mine. It's my moms but i need it fixed so i can sell my other car to boost my second gen eclipse on a good shortblock. I might surprise her and do a remote mount turbo setup on it one of these days at 6-8 psi using a 42/48 ar. snail. I like doing original projects. Doesn't matter who's car it is. I mainly work on inline transverse turbo 4 bangers but this could be fun in the future.

[BillBoost37]

There aren't that many things to leak. Check the bolts into the timing cover, and the lower hose connection. You've covered all the other bases.

A metal upper, that looks identical to yours would be an L26 motor or the 04+ version of the l36.

[2GeclipseRST]

It stopped leaking.

It threw 2 codes. One for the map sensor (no wonder, the glue came undone leaving it in two peices) and one for the Coolant temp sensor.

I replaced the map sensor (a whopping $120!!!!!). I have no idea where the coolant temp sensor goes. I can't find anything bumbling around underhood.

Stupid cel's.....