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Sedans Chrysler LHS Chrysler LHS
1361 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 8:56 PM
You are in the Chrysler LHS Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: tsurnick (Sep 02, 2008 7:59 pm)
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Replying to: barouk (Sep 05, 2008 4:58 am)
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I posted this on Bat auto technical, and a Sr member Danica gave me the first sensible and correct advice on this common problem with the Chrysler 3.5 V6. Here are the relevant parts of the thread. I posed the same question as above. Danica: - Since its an LHS I'll assume its got the 3.5 engine, which has a common problem with lower intake manifold gaskets. This engine has a large upper plenum, and a small intake manifold nestled between the heads. Close to where the upper rad hose fastens to the motor, there is a small area opening to the underside of the intake manifold. Spray carb cleaner in that opening with the engine idling. If it smooths out, you've found your leak. Tuscanskipper: - Thanks Danica! That is just the sort of information I'm looking for. The car is away from here currently. I will have it back next week. I will do exactly what you say, and post back. If that is it, I will get the gaskets. I bet access won't be brilliant. However when I get the plenum off I might be surprised. Hope Springs eternal! I have the service manual so I will look at the procedure for changing the gaskets. By the way it is the 3. 5. If you have solved this, your brilliant! I know this is a common problem, and it is all over the net, but no solutions. I have suspected an intake leak all along, but not been able to find it. So to me your reply makes sense. Tuscanskipper; _ I sprayed in the carb cleaner just as you instructed. The engine smoothed right out consistently with multiple sprays. I have a an intake manifold gasket replacement coming up! I will be off to the local parts store tomorrow. Danica, yours was the first correct answer to this problem I have seen on the net. Should I silicone the gasket, in a addition to the water channel, to prevent further problems? Once again, thanks for your help. Good job! Danica;- Only use silicone sealer on any surfaces that are pitted. Use caution with the fuel lines and coolant outlet at the rear of the engine. Tuscanskipper: - I finished the intake manifold gasket replacement first thing this morning. Since I have some physical limitations I did the repair over 3 days. I put in three hours two days ago, three hours yesterday, and an hour this morning. So that is seven hours, including radiator refill, warm up air bleeding and testing. I'm glad to report the engine started right away, with no leaks, check engine lights or fault codes. Best of all the engine idles so smoothly you have to check the rev counter to be certain the engine is running. There are no driving problems at all. Thanks once again Danica, that was the first sensible advice I received since this problem started. Since this problem seems prevalent, with no solutions generally offered, I hope this post will pop up in search engines. Since this seems a significant problem for this engine, I will go into aspects where I had to deviate from the Haines manual. The most significant difficulty was the fuel rails. The manual says to pinch the connectors to supply and return, but no way would they release. I figured if I removed the thermostat housing I could move them out of the way. I went to the parts store to get the housing gasket. They sold me a tool to uncouple the rails. However there was an older well seasoned mechanic in the store, and he cautioned me that theses tools often break the coupling, and advised if possible to do the repair without uncoupling the fuel rails. This proved easily possible, once the thermostat housing was removed. The other issue is the heater hoses on the back of the manifold. The Haines manual mentions only one heater hose. However there are two, and one goes straight down, and I could not get to the hose clamp, as the hose was short and would not pull up. I removed the metal hose connector from the manifold, by removing the two securing bolts. I was able to preserve the gasket, and used blue RTV sealant when I put it back. Otherwise the repair was as per Haines. Now as to cause. This gasket is brittle plastic. I never saw anything like it. It has finger cracks all over the place. It would soon have caused leak of coolant into the cylinders. It was dreadful to get the remnants off the head and manifold. It is impervious to gasket solvent. I got most off with a razor blade without scraping. For the rest I used the small scotch brite pad on a small air right angle grinder. This got all surfaces clean and shiny. I used form a gasket to hold the manifold gasket, fuel rail gaskets and plenum gaskets in place. A bead of blue RTV sealant was place round all water channel openings. The NAPA replacement gasket looked to be of excellent quality, by the way, and I doubt this problem will recur. One other issue, I found a mouse nest on the cylinder block, under the inlet manifold! I'm really glad to have tracked this problem down. These are great engines. I find it strange, that the cause of this common problem with these engines is not widely known. As far as I know this is the only correct answer on the net. Two dealers and multiple experienced mechanics gave me nonsensical answers. I'm glad I left the engine alone, until I was certain what the problem was.
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Replying to: barouk (Sep 05, 2008 4:58 am) |
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Replying to: tsurnick (Sep 05, 2008 6:09 am) |
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Replying to: tuscanskipper (Sep 05, 2008 6:50 pm)
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| i recently put a light in the trunk. i got one of those lights from the auto parts store and unplugged the orriginal light that was already in the trunk. I found out which wire was hot and which was ground. the light works fine but now the trunk ajar light on the dash wont go off. I disconnected the light that i installed in the trunk to see if that would change or fix anything but it didnt. any ideas? | |
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Replying to: tsurnick (Sep 09, 2008 5:13 pm) When I removed my manifold gasket, I could see why these 3.5 Chrysler engines are known for this problem. The gasket is made of a material I have never seen a gasket made of before and never want to again. Replace the manifold gasket and your vehicle will be transformed. Make sure you use a traditional high quality gasket, and NOT one of those Chrysler abortions. If you don't have to take enforced breaks like I do, you should get this done in a day. The complete job took me seven hours. Time to bite the bullet my friend. If you don't, you will end up with water in a cylinder, and or over heating problems. Mine had to be close on the basis of what I found on my vehicle.
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Replying to: tuscanskipper (Sep 09, 2008 6:30 pm)
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Replying to: tuscanskipper (Sep 09, 2008 6:30 pm)
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