2001 4.3 Sonoma Problems

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rbmc20

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Hey guys need a lil help if you could. I used the search but didn't get the results i needed or wanted. Heres the story

I have a 2001 sonoma crew cab that I bought last november with 146,000 miles on it. I had been loosing coolant and couldn't tell where it was going.. was thinking it was a blown head gasket ( im not by any means a mechanic) I only drive about 10miles to work a day. On my way to work friday it looked like smoke was coming from under the hood and looked down at the temp gauge and it was running hot. Get to work and steam is pouring out from the hood. I let it cool down before opening the hood to check. i open the hood and coolant is everywhere on the engine and under the hood. Thought it was probably a hose at first. I have a relative that is a mechanic and builds drag cars so I am having him look at it. He picked it up for me yesterday morning and today he calls me telling me to come to his garage and talk to him. he tells me that the intake gasket blew and that while he was tearing it apart that he came across some more problems. The distributor and the fuel injector needs to be replaced. long story short... where would be the best place to get these items without going broke and is there anything else that I should consider doing what time it is torn down?
thanks for any info
 
rbmc20 said:
lot of view but no responses..... thanks
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At this point your better off on doing a rebuilt on the engine. The Coolant running throughout the engine is corrosive to the internal engine bearing. From what you have described your better off doing a rebuilt to save your self time and money.

The way i look at it, the cost of getting the engine repaired is not worth it. Buy a rebuilt engine with warranty, so if there is any issues you are covered.

That's my experience in engine work that has been addressed with coolant leaking in the to engine for quite some time.

Good luck friend and keep us posted. ;)
 
Ok... got the truck back... he didn't fix everything he said was wrong with it. He said there was no sign of coolant in oil but some might have went into the engine when he took the intake off he changed the oil also... he replaced the intake gasket and distributor and put in new plugs. I wanted him to also go ahead and replace the spider injector what time it was tore down since one of them he said was loose and that they had an updated version. it has 147,000 miles on it and still has the original injector. well it starts up alot easier than it did. Assuming it is from the new distributor. But now it shakes pretty bad at idle and under acceleration. this wasn't there before he took it. I am thinking about maybe trying to replace the injector myself and picking up a haynes repair manual to guide me through the process. I also climbed underneath since i noticed a few oil spots on the driveway. Normally I park on the side in the grass and just noticed this with it sitting in the driveway overnight. I guess it is called the rear main seal where the engine and tranny hook together. It is leaking oil from this spot and from the oil drain plug. i was told that you would have to pull engine to fix this. Is this true? if so im starting to think I may just be better off to buy a rebuilt engine or one with low miles from a junk yard if I could find one. Whats your opinions ? Im really not use to having such a small truck. but i do kinda like it if it weren't for all the problems. other than the engine problems the body and interior are in really good shape.
 
rear main oil seal: yes you would have to seperate the engine and transmission. If you have multiple oil leaks try a cheap PCV valve. It sits on one of the valve covers and pops right out. shake it and it is supposed to rattle, if not its stuck and creating pressure in the oil system...its a cheap check anyways...goodluck
 
rear main is better to pull the tranny back and you can normaly do it like tat. if you have a shake at idel and accel sounds like a missfire check to make sure all the plug leads are in the right spot it is east to put one on the wrong cylinder. the oil drain plug just get a new gasket for it at next oil change. what injector are you talking about??
 
ok... checked the pcv valve.. its fine. It is a bad miss in cylinder number 3 checked all wires and they are all plugged in and in the right positions. I found a motor out of an 02 with 82,000 on it. they told me that I would have to change the intake on it. But it does have a 90 warranty on it. What do you guys think? Change the motor or just get rid of the truck?
 
ok i made a post but i dont see it... ok so i checked the pcv valve its good. It is a bad miss in number 3 . checked all the wires and it is all good and in the correct positions. I called around and found a motor out of a 02 with 82,000 on it. the guy said i would have to swap the intakes. other than that is there any other differences between an 01 and 02 ? and with you guys experience should i change the engine or just get rid of the truck all together? oh and the injector is the spider injector. its the original one... its never been updated. Have read that there have been alot of problems with this injector and now they have them that each tube has its own injector...
 
I wouldnt change the engine over a miss I would follow up with the miss it wil be a hell of a lot cheeper. you have to look at it how much is it gonna cost to swap the engine and buy it? why more then to chase a miss..right??
 
well... the injector alone is 350 bucks... plus what ever else might be wrong or go wrong with it. the newer engine with a warranty is 650 and I have someone that would put it in for pretty much nothing. maybe a case of beer or something... it just seems like there is going to be a pattern with this engine. Seems like if i fix one thing two others go wrong. I haven't really decided for sure what I am going to do. The dealer finally has agreed for me to look at some other vehichles on their lot and if I find something i like they will switch it out. But I am most definately going to have a mechanic look at it before making a decision. I dont want to have the same problems or worse.
 
Were the intake and gaskets correctly installed? Could be a bad spark plug...unless you checked it...
Intakes leaking coolant is apparently common on 4.3s. I had mine done last fall. '03 sonoma w/4.3. The oil could be coming from around the distributor seal...just thinking out loud.
 
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