Coolant flush time?

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Originally Posted by streetglideok

Aww yes. The smaller 3.1 and 3.4L engines are notorious for their lower intake gaskets leaking. Due to the cheapo plastic and rubber gaskets that crack and crumble with age, they puke coolant and oil out the ends of the intake, or some cases allow coolant(kiss of death) down into the oil. More common to find than the water pump even. Not a real cheap job to do correctly, which a lot of shops lack the knowledge of how. 3.8L, lower intake same issue as the other engines, and the bonus, upper intake, or plenum likes to crack due to heat exposure from the EGR system and leak coolant under the throttlebody. Eventually leads to outright intake rupture and hydrolocking the engine. I don't believe the 3.8L was offered that year in those cars, but just a heads up to those running series II 3800's.

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So what's the best thing for me to do?

If Walmart topped off with green you are seeing the result of mixing coolant. Time to clean that out.

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Originally Posted by UrbanWolf

So what's the best thing for me to do?

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CSU homecoming is real close. sell it AS IS. Or as i posted before, pay for a diagnosis, instead of Guessing.

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Originally Posted by tmleadr03

If Walmart topped off with green you are seeing the result of mixing coolant. Time to clean that out.

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My guess is tmleadr is right a 2000 had dex-cool to start with. Take it to a place better then jiffy lube with real mechanics if you are worried about it, they will be more then happy to get more money from you if something is wrong . Streetglideok makes great points about the problems with these engines however i had a 3.8l that that never skipped a beat in 200k miles besides when i changed the antifreeze just like jerrmrc talked about and killed a water pump and a head gasket. A little bit more now may cost you less in the long run if you do not know what you are looking at. If it were me i would get a flush and see if this "oil" in the antifreeze shows up again and if it does stop driving it until you get it repaired.

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Originally Posted by colorider

Flush with white vinegar. Then flush with water 2x.

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douche

it could be stop leak making the coolant chunky and turning colors,

may have had a heater core leak they were trying to plug

Get it looked at, find out why you are using coolant, and get the old crude out. Avoid jiffy lube like has been said. You'll want to find a legit operation, to which I don't know any in your area.

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Originally Posted by streetglideok

Get it looked at, find out why you are using coolant, and get the old crude out. Avoid jiffy lube like has been said. You'll want to find a legit operation, to which I don't know any in your area.

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I read the op as his coolant was a little brown not low

If that's the case dump the old stuff(you can just take off the lower hose) fill it with water and some coolant cleaner stuff from autozone and fill it back up with the correct coolant

I would take it to McCormicks auto on horestooth and have them check it. Going into winter I wouldn't flush it yourself with straight water, draining the radiator won't get half of it back out. If it is an intake gasket its only a few hours labor and pretty easy to do yourself (I could help or at least show you, I use to do the in 20 minutes). They make a replacement for dexcool that's the best of both worlds so it will still lube the water pump etc but I don't remember what its called. Check the heater hoses and quick connect fitting on the back side of the engine also for leaks if you wanna do it your self. John McCormick is about the most honest shop and best guy I know of up here.

Mixing dexcool with standard coolant will cause a brown jelly looking shit.