98 Regal Thermostat Help

[wish98was87]

Also posted in supercharged forum but figured I'd add it here to. My 98 N/A regal has been dripping some coolant over the last few weeks. Thought nothing of it since its pretty old car so just added coolant as needed. Yesterday it was starting to overheat so I shut it down. Added some more coolant and it was a little better. Any ideas what it is? Only the lower hose on the passenger side seemed to have liquid around it. Could it be the thermostat? If so how much would it cost to replace and could I do it fairly quickly? I need the car its my DD. Thanks guys!

-Rich

 

[gsgns4me]

If I remember correctly, those engines have a plastic fitting/nipple in the water pump/timing cover that crack or break and start leaking.

 

[bison]

The problem could be one or more things. If the engine has less than 150k on it it is likely the upper intake manifold. It will burn through where the egr passage is and allow coolant to enter the intake directly. It will actually get sucked in when running and when shut off it could leak in and fill a cylinder leading to a really bad day if you try to start it. They sell a replacement upper at the auto parts stores and its cheap. It comes with a special sleeve that will fit in place of the factory steel tube where the egr passage connects to the upper intake and will prevent the burn through. It even comes with a new gasket. It will take a couple hours to complete the first time. I can do them myself in about 45 minutes total including topping off the coolant since ive done several of these. I dont bother draining the coolant when doing these. There is very little that will leak when removing the upper. Disconnect the throttle body and let it sit there.

The other possibility if it has really high mileage (like 200k+) is that the belt tensioner is worn and cocking the back part of the assembly which has a small plastic 90* tube that seals on the front of the intake and the tensioner. Yes, coolant actually flows through the tensioner. You have to be very careful removing this or you will break critical components. I have a 250k 3800S2 in my daily driver. Ive dealt with these issues before. Not too bad unless you hydraulic the engine or the tensioner breaks and you far from home. If you find out that its the tensioner which will be obvious when you look at it since the pulley wont be parallel to the other pulleys PM since there is more to explain about removal of the tensioner than i feel like typing here. Its a little bit of a PIA to do the tensioner job but not awful. Fwiw i did the tensioner at about 220k. If you want to leave th ecar in CT i could have it all done for a lot less than anyone will quote you.

 

[WeSS]

coolant leak

We just changed two small coolant elbows on a 98 regal gs last month. The cost for both elbows was less than the coolant. They are used on many different gm series II 3.8 liter platforms.

 

[Dr.drivability]

Could just be a water pump if the lower hose has coolant on it. Usually the tensioner wont put coolant on the lower radiator hose. They quit using those plastic fittings in the series2 engines--95ish, I think, but what do I know, just an ase master tech lol !!!!! Just busting chops fellas!!!!!

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

We just changed two small coolant elbows on a 98 regal gs last month. The cost for both elbows was less than the coolant. They are used on many different gm series II 3.8 liter platforms.

Could you tell me where these elbows are, and what it is exactly, that they do?