Repairing the 2002 Buick Park Avenue Intake Manifold and Gaskets
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Not a how-to video. Just some random observations and a runup after the repair. I think all the injector leaks are gone now. The Keykeeper took the car to work and it didn't leave him there or run out of coolant, so we're making headway.
While I have really enjoyed using the DCR-TRV280 "Candyham*", have certainly gotten my money's worth out of it and definitely DO NOT regret buying it for a moment, it is steadily becoming more and more fidgety. I think there are portions in the video where you can see and hear that the error correction isn't quite keeping up as the tape is played. Maybe I'll send it in for repair -- I think it's mainly a tape backtension issue. If you've had a similar vintage Handycam repaired, your recommendations or warnings away from any particular repair service would be appreciated.
In other interesting news, apparently it is also acceptable that a hard drive with its write cache (mistakenly) disabled and running within a Core i5 3330 based system should start dropping frames like mad during DV capture. Sometimes older computers really did do it better: outside of buggy software and half-baked video editors, my trusty old Dimension 8300 has never given such trouble! (The 8300 also shows rather less CPU usage when doing DV capture, but that may well be a device driver thing, and what I get for using a VIA based Firewire card in the newer machine.)
Did you do the lower intake gaskets as well? Those are the ones that normally fail most often. Also, you may wish to pre-emptively replace the fuel pressure regulator with a new one if it hasn't been done already. The original can leak fuel into the intake when the car is turned off, and when you try to start it, an explosion and fireball is the result. We have an '01 Lesabre here that blew the intake to pieces.
Yes, we did all the gaskets. I'm not sure about the fuel pressure regulator, but I know the Keykeeper did a few other "might as well knock it out while we're here" sort of things and that very well could have been on the list.
working in a tire shop for 13 years i broke many many tires down cleaned the beads of the rim with a wire wheel bead sealed the tire and reinstalled 99%, of those fixes lasted the the life of the tire
I agree with you. I would try that first before investing in new wheels.
All of the "easy" fixes have been exhausted at this point.
as i said,, having done only tire work and service work for as long as i did steelman makes the best bead sealer there is,, a drill and wire brush gets the corrosion out and the sealer fills any spots that need it and makes a good seal,, never had one come backon my dime nothing easy about it,,
GM Dex-cool and cheap plastic gaskets = fun! I've had to replace them on a 94 Beretta Z26 3.1L and a 98 Blazer 4.3L. Every friend I know whose has a 3.1L, 3.4L, 3.8L, 4.3L & 5.0L engines have had to replace the gaskets. Thankfully fel-pro makes a metal replacement gasket.
These are awesome motors. I've seen turbo setups making around 500hp using the supercharged block for its stronger internals.
oh wow I'm early
The Keykeeper was giving Ruby the "Spark of Life"!
what happend to the 1988 b buick electra
hello there nice to see a new video 😀
Bill, did you change the lower intake manifold gaskets as well? They are a common place for coolant to leak as well. When I did my 3800 series II upper plenum, I replaced the plastic lower intake gaskets with the revised metals ones. Another good thing to change is the plastic "elbows" that pass coolant from the lower intake manifold through the belt tensioner (metal replacements are available). Dexcool coolant seems to like to eat plastic.
Yes, we changed all of the gaskets.
That's ironic, my 1991 park avenue's name is Ruby too.
I'm getting ready to do the same repair on this engine's predecessor, though it won't be difficult I'm not looking forward to it.
I have a 99 grand am with a 3400 series , its a relief that the gasket in your video went at 190k because its a common issue on my engine also .... My vehicle only has about 45k miles for a 99. helpful video
Nice car and as far as the rims I would stick with the stock look or some other Park Avenue rims. :)
General Motors stopped production of a few very nice cars in the early to mid 2000's such as the Chevrolet Cavalier, quite possibly one of my favorite cars ever made. It didn't have "class" like this Park Avenue but what it did have was reliability, my family and I put 250,000 equivalent miles (I'm in Canada so we use kilometers) on that car all all we did to it was regular maintenance and shocks. The Chevrolet Cavalier was also very well made and had a lot of nice features including the truly outstanding amount of torque and power the little 2.2 liter engine could supply.
My valve cover gaskets leak, too. I torqued down the bolts since they were a little loose. Didn't help. I guess I'll *have* to replace them (at 214,000 miles). :)
I'm glad the VQ30DE I have in the Maxima doesn't have a plastic intake manifold.
Smashing video bill, your mum is going to be happy as larry with that :-D.
Thats what i like about your family bill, helping each other :-D.
I wished i had a family as nice as yours.
Cracking wasn't really the issue with the plastic plenum on the Series II, it was the flange being so thin the heat from the engine would warp it, I'm not sure if you noticed while you guys were doing this but the flange on the replacement should have been a bit thicker.
One of the customers at my place of work also has this car and actually found some very nice chrome wheels for it. They definitely weren't stock, but were still quite tasteful and even had the Buick emblem in the center. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him where he got them from and can't find them online anywhere. If you look around, there's a lot of chrome "foo-foo" (rockers, handles, pillars, etc.) available for this model and some of it isn't even half bad. One thing I would've liked to have seen offered OEM is a spoiler, which did the Bonneville and Impala of that time a lot of good (cosmetically).
I'll see if anyone I know can find anything on those particular wheels.
As for spoilers...if this were a supercharged model, let's just say that I like my weapons to be stealthy. I *want* some riceboy racer wannabe gaping in awe at the grandma car that just left them behind.
Those plastic gaskets are junk. The felpro aftermarket gasket is a great improvement.
We used the Fel-Pro replacement gaskets.
HOW MANY MILES DOES THIS CAR HAVE?
It's right there in the video.
The video looked and sounded fine except for a brief audio blip at 0:09. Have you tried a head cleaning tape? You never footnoted the asterisk after "Candyham"... and, more on-topic, I noticed that you weren't filling Ruby up with orange "Death-Cool"...
I did try a head cleaning tape, as well as a manual cleaning of the heads. The DCR-TRV280 still complains occasionally of a dirty head, usually near the beginning of a new tape. When it does indicate such, it will have trouble playing back what it just recorded unless I either reload the tape or "whack a Sony".
I think I've forgotten what the footnote was.
We haven't put "Death-Cool" back into *anything* after doing repairs like this. I don't think that whatever makes it so aggressive to seals and gaskets has been fixed, and these aren't the kind of repairs one wants to do often.
Does this vehicle use Dex Cooling like all GM vehicle has?
It used to. It doesn't any more.
Sounds like the rims are fit for the scrapheap, could slime the tyres to keep them inflated in the meantime, but apparently tyre places will charge extra for the cleanup of slime (presumably because they know it's putting them out of a job!!)...
It's beyond what slime or other sealants will fix. As with other car repairs, we do our tire work (except for balancing, since we haven't got one of those) ourselves.
My understanding of this problem on GM vehicles was mainly the gasket. But with all the miles on your Buick, you were very lucky it didn't have a problem sooner! Also I was wondering if you had the oil changed because I was told by a mechanic that did this work on our 2004 Pontiac Aztek that coolant could very well end up in the crankcase during the disassembly.
I must say I do like you car related videos, one of the main reasons for this is simply that, 99 percent of the vehicles you show are not available in the UK. Having now looked back, your Mother's car must of been very well looked after throughout its life, such a clean body and the engine runs very nicely too :) I have had alloy wheels got porous too, I have sometimes found running silicone around the bead sealing area, can make wheel last a while longer.
good job on the repair and on the rims leaking put some " tire slime " in the wheels which will seal up the leaks and get her by for a short while and save money having to buy new or used rims..I have used that stuff all the time and it has saved me many times...
We've done that already, and it's come to the point where it's just not safe or effective to do so any longer.
From what I've heard and seen, what really does it is the combination of the plastic gaskets and the dex cool. Dex cool is some nasty stuff, it's corrosive, and it plugs up all the coolant passages and the radiators with orange crust, as well as eating away at the plastic gaskets.
Have you ever owned a chrystler New Yorker?
Correction: Chrysler
uxwbill has owned two Plymouth Reliants (one sedan and one wagon), but AFAIK no Chryslers.
+vwestlife alright, i like watching your channel btw. Lol
As vwestlife mentioned, I've owned two Plymouth Reliant cars but never a Chrysler New Yorker. The Reliant station wagon I had never really reached the point of being roadworthy, although I did have it up to highway speeds a few times. The red Reliant sedan I had was a wonderful car from which my brothers and I got a lot of utility before it was found that the body was pulling in two under the rear seat.
I hope that you guys replaced the lower intake gaskets too!
The GM Series II 3800 V6 engines had one thing in common: blown head gaskets left and right. My Oldsmobile Intrigue has a 3.5L V6, same as my dad's Chevy "Clown Car" Malibu Maxx. I didn't realize both my 99 GMC Safari and 07 Uplander has an OHV, SFI engines in them. The only difference is a 4.3 Vortec V6 in my Safari, and a 3.9L V6 in the Uplander. The older 3800 V6 engines were built to last. Nothing can destroy those engines, and great gas mileage in the late 1980s.
the Intrigue and Malibu 3.5 engine are far from beingthe same engine AT ALL! the 3.5 (shortstar) is a twin cam design lightly based off the Cadillac Northstar V8 and was only used in the 1999.5-2002 Olds intrigue and the 2001-2004 Olds Aurora . the 3.5 in the Malibu is a 60 degrees Pushrods engine and that engine is in the same family has the 2.8,3.1,3.4 and the 3.9 engines,
+Jotech 1991 Huh. Didn't know that.
3800's never had head gasket issues.
My 2002 Chevy Malibu had slight crack in the head gasket which caused coolant to leak and burn out the exhaust which caused overheating issues which lead to climate control issues. Plus engine running problems. We used some kind of stuff that you put into the tank for the coolant and it goes through the system and seals the cracks and man it was a night and day difference.
Just fyi there is a recall and service on the valve covers and gaskets on the 3800 series engines that the dealer should take care of as they were having issues with oil dripping on the exhaust manifolds and catching fire.
I believe this car has had that recall completed. At least that's what the information I've collected about it would indicate.
Odd because I thought all the recall valve covers were black and they don't have that oil fill neck on them anymore just a cap that screws direct into the valve cover. I would double check with a dealer as it does not look done to me.
Ive never had too much luck with the multi-layer/multi-composition rubber on steel intake gaskets. It always seems that the thin outer-most seal (orange rubber) de-laminates. It is suprising that automotive manufacturers never included some type of crank case sensor to detect the presence of water in the oil.
Plenty of life left in that LeSabre. I had a 2000 with 310k!!
Could you get the rims media blasted and powder coated?
I don't think it'll help. They're deeply corroded on and around the bead sealing area.
*****
Ah, I got away with it on the last set I had, though I was lucky at the time I had a lathe available that I could have used to recut the bead faces.
I hope you don't make the rookie mistake of having inner tubes fitted-bad idea, the practice is virtually outlawed here in the UK thankfully. Regards, J.
I've good success with using epoxy paint to paint the bead area of those types of rums. It can take several coats, but everyone I've tried it on over the years has worked. It comes in spray bomb/rattle cans and isn't that difficult to work with. Might be worth a shot.
And as for the "short video" comment let's be honest here. Any uxwbill video shorter than 30 minutes is a short video. No offense meant as I like your videos, but short and to the point just isn't your style.
Missed Smoke Teeest though.
ive used fibre glass resin . with as little hardener as possible, it gives the epoxy more time to soak into all the nasty capillaries caused by the corrosion . balance the rims on top of a pentium 4 processor for a really kiln baked hardened finish .
all the best uxwbill . thanks for all the videos.
Average Joe - I wouldn't have actually thought it possible to run inner tubes in this sort of a setup, and it's definitely not something I'd do.
We've wire wheeled the beads to the point where structural integrity is a concern. Our fix for a while was sealing or sliming the bead up, which held it for a while but isn't working any longer. The center portion of one rim is also corroded enough that it's leaking air out of the inner circumference.
My uncle has a 98 but it is a piece of junk compared to yours.
I had similar problems on my last car (2001 Malibu with the 3.1 V6). Lower intake gaskets failed around 49k. Luckily, I had the dealership fix that one for free. Was a good car overall, but was cursed with electrical problems in the end.
my silverado just like yours it's been making a squeal noise when I brake and turn the wheel to the left. I just hope she can drive me cross country without any issues!
why risk it? get it checked out somewhere.
Don't take a chance. Get it looked at before it leaves you somewhere.
If you need more encouragement than that: having it fixed now will be a LOT cheaper than having it towed when it breaks down a hundred miles from anything.
You should have your own advice column in the paper.
***** I took it to one mechanic he couldn't find anything wrong everything looked goood. Sometimes it squeals sometimes it doesnt...maybe they're dirty? Now the check engine light is on...most likely need spark plugs. It's been pretty dang reliable otherwise.
Maybe it's nothing, but I would seek a second opinion.
I wholeheartedly agree about the Park Avenue. I owned two a '99 and the last '05. I loved the 2005 and wish I never traded it. Unfortunately I was unable to buy it new but I got it from an 84 year old gentleman in in '08 with 16K on it. I have owned a 2011 Lucerne, 2012 Enclave, and 2015 Enclave after (all purchased new) but none compare to the Park Avenue. The Enclaves are nice, but I would still take my Park Avenue over them any day. I just don't love my cars anymore. I guess modern cars just don't really inspire that kind of emotion anymore at least for me. I have friends that had a 2000 Park Avenue for a number of years and traded theirs for an Enclave and they miss theirs too. They just had an unbeatable combination of classic luxury/comfort, size, old school yet modern styling, and fuel economy. My dumb Lucerne which was smaller got poorer fuel economy, how's that for progress GM! The modern Buick flagships just seem cheap and bland and ride like a sports GT model, I would not give one a second glance. If they still made the Park Avenue, there would be no question I would have one in my garage right now.
I have a supercharged 3800 in my SSEI Pontiac Bonneville. It moves that boat around really well!
The manifold itself on my Buick 2004 Lesabre was replaced under warranty under my late father's ownership. The manifold is made of PLASTIC. You better check on this.
We had a 1988 Olds Calais with alloy wheels. What junk... I added air every week. I tried various pro remedies, but no luck. GM alloy are junk.
Nice Bill well done thank your brother he did good
heya bill I know this is off topic but I have a 2008 striker extreme motherboard that's giving a CPU INIT error and I have no idea how to fix this.
I have not a clue. Perhaps you should ensure the BIOS is up to date and that the CPU is actually good?
Check literally everything your board must be a touchy one eh?
Check the CPU support list on the Asus website. It supports all Core 2 Duo CPUs, but it doesn't support any Quad Cores newer than the Q6600 and Q6700 and the 65nm Extremes, so no Q8xxx or Q9xxx series.
I just checked the cpu and well... I need a new one because the cpu has a bubble on it
wow lol
its still strange to me to see the 3800 in a front wheel drive configuration, after seeing it only in one car and in rear wheel drive all my life
I love this
What is the reset procedure for the climate control
Pull the relevant fuses, and wait a few minutes.
@@uxwbill with the ignition on?
Not if you can help it!
On the mention of the Canon FS200 ghost trails (around the 30 second mark), I have this odd idea that it might be a result of a noise reduction scheme Canon also used (but made switchable to the user) in their early 2010s broadcast equipment (my Canon XF100 from 2010 has it) and, much later, their fancy consumer 4K cameras (my HF G50 from 2019 has it as well).
In my testing, that particular noise reduction scheme works tremendously well, but the after-images Canon warns about look suspiciously similar to the ghost trails you get when using any FS series Canon camcorder in bad lighting. Might be slightly different down to both camcorders mentioned using CMOS sensors and one of them recording much more color information than conventional consumer equipment.
I had wondered a few times if it was possibly something to do with the image stabilization. Not enough to actually try and find out or anything, though. I find it interesting in a way that they'd include an image noise reduction system and not say anything about it or even give one an option to shut it off. Such is the way it goes with happy home video grade camcorders, I guess...
As best I remember, the Canon Vixia (HF-R80?) camcorder I played with at Best Buy and uploaded some test footage from did exactly the same thing in low light. I really wanted to like that camcorder for the features it had (mic/headphone jacks) but its performance seemed underwhelming and feature set quite limited.
I've actually wondered about that too, though the trails did stick around on my FS200 when I would shut off the stabilizer (I owned one during my sophomore-senior years in high school since vwestlife mentioned the sale on the refurbished ones around that time-sold it to my uncle shortly after I graduated).
I know the FS200 has digital stabilization only, but it does also have a (physically) tiny sensor so, could be either one of those things (even at SD, the thing has a 1/6" sensor so those pixels are absolutely minute).
Odd that it never appeared on the Elura cameras of the FS camera era, but then, I'm no engineer, I'm just an armchair detective with a mild fascination for Canon (and, to a lesser degree, Sony and Panasonic) camcorders.
Yeah, Canon really lost it on the HF-R series after the R10(0), but they really did make an effort on the R60(0) (I owned a HF-R600 and aside from the wind reduction destroying the audio during loud scenes, the camera itself was actually pretty damn brilliant, but then after that, the ball was once more dropped-my HF-R600 did also have those trails).
Plastic intake manifolds.. what a wonderful invention. I'm sure it saved GM a few bucks, but was it really worth it?
I'm a big fan of GM cars, but it's kind of amazing how much they damaged their own reputation with problems of this nature that were caused by trying to pinch pennies on proper materials. Their gaskets didn't do them any favors either. It makes me wonder whether their management ever thought more than 5 years ahead.
In their defense though, at least they didn't use timing belts, which for affected vehicles are just as much a burden as having to replace gaskets on a GM.
I'd take a guess that the plastic intakes were less to save money and more to save weight. By itself it wouldn't do much to increase fuel economy, but every little bit counts.
At least the redesigned part seems to be an effective fix. I've not heard of anyone having to redo the repair afterwards, provided it was done properly to start with.
Compsite intake manifolds are lighter, less expensive to produce, and transfer significantly less heat from the engine to the intake air. Makes for more power and efficiency.
Happy to see Ruby back on the road! 187K is respectable. Have you thought about using that tire slime to seal up the leaks? If the wheels are really far gone it probably wouldn't work but may be worth a try.
The wheels are really that far gone. We've tried all of the "easy" fixes and while they buy us time, it's gone beyond that now.
Good video.
I had a 92 or 93 buick lesabre it motor seemed under powered for such a heavy car. That is why they started putting turbos in the latter park avenues. Great riding car but it used a lot of gas.
They really were not bad on gas. In fact quite the opposite. I had two of the second generation Park Avenues that got very near 30 mpg on the highway. Considering the size and comfort these cars offered I can pretty easily say there is nothing on the market now that would give you that kind of mileage and be anywhere near as roomy or comfortable. These were some of the best cars ever made in my opinion. It is a shame cars like this are completely gone.
any new updates on the silverado
Not at this time.
I have a 2002 Civic lx is about 145 thousand miles. Do you think I should get a turbo installed along with a supercharger. I feel like that would give my 1.8 liter engine some kick.
My only suggestion would be to buy a car equipped with the options or aftermarket equipment you want. Doubly so if this is a daily driver...because you're not going to be driving it for some time while all of these changes take place.
(Okay, there are really two suggestions. You may not like the latter. Forget the Honda and get something that's actually got some kick to it. Even though someone somewhere has probably done it, super-and-turbocharging an engine sounds like ridiculous overkill to me.)
98 Regal with a supercharger
The Regal's not a terrible start, if you can find one that has actually been taken decent care of.
(Ask this question of a thousand different people, however, and you're likely to get almost that many different answers.)
With the wheels leaking they have stuff called bead seal i worked at a tire shop. I use to use indian head gasket sealer on my tempo wheels once it stoped the air leaks but where hell get them off the rim to change.
We've used it in the past. It no longer works on these wheels. That's why we're trying to find some decent replacements.
Ya got to love pot holes
what was the mileage on this car (or engine) when it started to fail?
180,8xx
I have a similar car, hopefully I get as many miles on it before I have to do this. Was it very difficult to do? Did you bother to check and see if the OBDII threw out any codes or did you just see the coolant burning in the exhaust?
It isn't too difficult, but I'd definitely suggest making some good notes and taking pictures. You are going to be removing some engine electrical stuff, the fuel injection hardware and a few other things.
This never got as far as codes being thrown. The car was losing more and more coolant as time wore on.