I just got this old van that I want to fix up for work. It's a 1997 Chevy Savana with a 305 v8, auto, and A/C.

I would like to know what are the common problems on these engines, and what I should fix while I've got it in my driveway.

All I can tell you is the engine squeaked a lot when it was running. I found the noise coming from the alternator and took that off. The water pump was looking pretty bad so that's going in the garbage too. I also found a little metal-on-metal noise when I spin the A/C compressor and some play, but there's no way I'm taking that off. I forgot to check if the A/C even works.

I heard these motors were prone to head gasket problems. I'm posting some pics of the coolant because it looks a little brown to me, but I'm not an expert on these things. I also noticed a lot of black gunk right above the water pump, below the thermostat housing. I didn't get to drive it much because I was nervous about the squeaking noises but I went about 10 miles home and it didn't overheat.

Pic 1 is the motor with the water pump off. Pic 3 is the motor with the water pump on. Thing is all the other vans I saw in my $1000 budget had oil and gunk all over the front of the engine and down on the suspension parts. Can anyone clear up where this stuff is coming from?

 

It seems that there was no gasket on the water outlet that houses the thermostat. There's an O-ring that slips onto the thermostat, and also supposed to be a gasket between the water outlet and the engine.

Anyway I was at 2 different stores getting parts and neither of them had it in stock. Is it possible that this caused all the gunk to build up on the front of the engine?

 

If it is not overheating that's great. You should still back flush the radiator and the block, replace the hoses and fill with antifreeze. Replace everything and drive it and hopefully you will be OK. If you want A/C then will have to work on that.

 

If you look close, you can see the gasket of the lower intake manifold squishing out. Right between the timing chain cover and the EGR valve outlet. It looks like that's where all the gunk was coming from.

 

thats probably just black rtv...theres no gasket for the front and rear of the valley

 

you have orange DexCool. that stuff sucks. go green as soon as you can.