New to these Forums, I have a big problem. Recently my temp gage has been going over the half way point, this has been going on for maybe a month, thougth nothing of it. Now it goes three quarters and beyond, freaking hot gauge light came on, started smelling burning oil, took it into the shop, said my lower intake manifold gasket is leaking bad, started leaking some anti freeze into my engine, they said it wasnt bad. But what should I be looking for so this wont happen again!. Gaskets, themostate, etc etc. Im pretty pissed, car only has 111k on it. got an estimate for 636 bucks to fix it. Seems decent?

 

it certainly could happen again, tho this particular case shouldn't come up again for another 100k miles or so. engine gaskets do break down over time, parts wear out. next time your gauges start reading differently than normal, act fast. that's what them gauges are for. wouldn't be pissed either. 111k miles is a good stretch, BUT i would make sure a good shop does the work. if there is anti freeze in oil, it's possible that main bearings could be affected, in a bad way. if it was a small amount of antifreeze, you might be ok, but if it was a large amount, i'd rebuild/replace the motor.

 

thanks for the advice, replacing the motor, considering that might cost more than my car is worth, I don't think that's an option, *sigh*

 

yeah, antifreeze wreaks havoc on bearings. a very small bit usually won't hurt, but get enough mixed in the oil and it'll eat the bearings.

 

its just the gasket, gm used the antifreeze that ate through the bearings, so if you replace the gasket and replace the antifreeze with something other than what gm recommended it will be fine, im not even sure what gm recommends, dexcool i think

 

Had the same problem on an 2002 Monte Carlo and it did cost about 600 dollars sorry to say.