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SC 3800 bearing noise + oil leak


nurkvinny

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Within 48 hours, I have had 2 things come up with my GTP. First, I started smelling burning oil each time I parked, or came to a red light. From past experience with other 3800 engines, I am assuming this is a bad valve cover gasket.

 

Then, last night, 1 mile from home, I started hearing what I can only guess is a bad water pump bearing or SC snout. It's def. a bad bearing noise that raises and lowers with engine RPM.

 

So, my question is... are valve cover gaskets and/or water pumps taking a shit a common issue on these motors ~100k miles?

 

Thanks

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Forgot to come back and update this...

 

The noise went away after I parked the car in the warm garage overnight. I can only assume I ran over a deep water puddle that night when the weather was shitty and got the belt wet... dried up and noise hasn't came back since.

 

As for the burning oil... I decided to see what would happen if I just snugged the valve cover bolts down. I tightened up the front and rear bolts, and both covers stopped leaking. Woohoo. They'll probably start leaking again in the future, but I never keep cars long enough to worry about it.

 

Josh, thanks for the info; I've seen that guy on Cofba. When (if) I replace the gaskets, I can get GM gaskets for $7 a piece through dad's shop. When I talked to the local Pontiac parts dept, they told me GM was stopping production on the 3800 VC gaskets. He didn't know why though?

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