Well crap, GM continues to impress me with their quality lol. While changing the oil on my '08 Uplander cargo 3.9, I noticed orange coolant drops at the bottom of the engine. I followed it up and sure enough, wet coolant where the back bank of the head meet the crossover pipe on the passenger side.

I've read the crossover pipe leak is commonly confused with a leaking head gasket but 2008 3.9 engines were supposed to have the updated crossover pipe/gasket design.

Does anyone have any info or experience with this? It seems to be a fairly slow leak as I replaced the coolant with Dexcool last year and topped everything off and currently, it's still about 3/4 full from what I can tell...

Thanks

Jeremy

 

sounds like the cross-over gaskets. There is an updated crossover pipe for some models that may need to be replaced to fix it properly.

 

The crossover gaskets were replaced in my '07 under warranty. Good luck.

 

Oh, no warranty lol. I have 125,000 on it now. I usually do my own work but that 3.9 is jammed in there. I dread having the front struts done too!!

Going to price crossover pipe/gaskets but may just bite the bullet and have a shop or <gasp!>, the dealership depending on prices. It seems that dealers and shops are sometimes pretty competitive on prices at times...

Jeremy

 

Well I'm updating this thread after some time has passed because while there was a small tear in the crossover pipe gasket that fixed a small leak, I still noticed oil buildup over time from the back of the rear VC. Well it progressed to the point of the oil pan being saturated in oil which has now deteriorated one of the motor mounts and just got the diagnosis that it is the rear head gasket puking oil. The van now has 188,000 miles which aside from the oil filter adapter gasket and crossover pipe gasket, has been very reliable.

Cost for parts and labor is $1750 which seems in line with average repair cots but at this mileage, I'm going to get the mount, plugs and wires replaced (it's time) and I guess invest in a piece of cardboard underneath the van. Yay.

Now I guess I just keep driving until the engine dies or I get the time/money to drop in a lower mileage engine and possibly have the gaskets replaced before installation. Lovely...


Jeremy