Pontiac Repair: 2002 Pontiac Bonneville Overheating, head gasket problem, pontiac bonneville

Question
QUESTION: My 2002 Bonneville SE 3.8 liter 130,000 miles blows out cold air and overheats pretty fast when driving. The coolant level drops but is not leaking. I already replaced the thermostat. Lost now!

ANSWER: Hi Chris"

either you have a head gasket problem with this or a lower intake gasket issue or best case cenario would be just an upper intake manifold that is warped. if you loosing coolant and not seeing it on the ground the engine is either burning it or it leaking into the crank case. Any of these problmes are not good for the lower end of the engine.. I would pressure test the cooling system and see if you can dtermine wheer it's going.. If you keep overheating the engine that is NOT a good thing it's going to cause more damage then what has already happened.
Good luck :)


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I did find a leak in the 90 degree plastic piece from the pump to the intake. I put stop leak in it for now till i can replace it. so far its not overheating but havent driven it alot yet. could this be all it was?

Answer
Yes that would do it. those elbows do go bad. you need to remove the belt tensioner to replace that pipe. ther are actually 2 elbos that attach the tensioner to the engine the one that's leaking and one that will be if you don't replace it when you take the tensioner off.