I figured I'd post this up given the amount of these coolant elbows I have had to replace over the years. On almost all of the 3800 or 3.8 liter V6 engines found in GM vehicles, supercharged or not, have inherent problems with the coolant elbows leaking, and often times it may be hard for people to diag the problem. Often times they only leak when the engine cools off and the seals shrink, but sometimes I have seen them get brittle and just break. In the case they break the leak is easy to spot, but in the case that the orings have lost their seal it can be tricky.
If you follow the heater hoses into the coolant block (which is more or less a bracket that holds the alternator) you can get a look at them.
-- Edited by SELLC on Saturday 14th of December 2013 09:55:16 PM
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Good post, especially for those people who have ( at this stage ) minor leaks & don't know where to find them or start looking.
We've had these motors in Oz fitted to our GM Commodores since about 1988, & they go reasonably hard, especially thanks to the the 4-speed auto - ( 1st gear anyway, they soon load-up in second LOL ). Interesting to see them with the front-wheel-drive layout, as all of ours have been rear-wheel drive.
I've seen a lot of that brown cooling water inside their radiators, & it looks like you get it too. I always wondered why they picked out such a shitty color for coolant !
Cheers,
Rastus
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