Coolant elbows on GM 3800

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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Oct. 27, 2020 5:59 pm

Just a heads up since these engines are so common, from what I'm reading these elbows have a very high failure rate. They are under the bracket for the alternator, you can see one of them or in my case where one was supposed to be. If you have older GM car with one these engines you might want to consider some preventive maintenance because you'll probably end up on side of road. Also if you have mystery loss of coolant this may be the reason why as they also tend to leak. Had one on my car just break but I was close to home, made it about one mile but had to stop at convenience store for a gallon of water for the other mile.

Replacing them tomorrow, not a big job and the elbows are only a few bucks.


 
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Post by hank2 » Tue. Oct. 27, 2020 11:12 pm

Good advice Richard. I had a '92 Lesabre some years ago that cracked one of those. I think it was on the intake manifold passage? I went up the road to a Caddy and then Pontiac dealer and got a factory revised metal replacement. For a silly price, of course.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Oct. 28, 2020 3:13 am

There is two them, they attach to the bracket holding the alternator which is also where you connect hoses for the heater core. There is no clamps or anything, they can't move once installed but you need to remove the bracket to install them. The one that you can see exits engine somewhere around the manifold.

They are cheap to buy and it's not a huge project to fix them. Just glad it broke when it did and I didn't get stuck anywhere.


 
hank2
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Post by hank2 » Wed. Oct. 28, 2020 11:09 pm

If you're going to have some vehicle trouble, no better place than at home or within sight of home. It's been about a dozen years since I did mine and I don't recall what I had to remove to access them. I do remember removing the serpentine belt. Good luck with a speedy repair!

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Oct. 29, 2020 1:24 am

It was quick, about 45 minutes. Remove the battery cable, two speed nuts on the reservoir to get it out of the way, take the belt off, 2 nuts and two bolts on the alternator, and three bolts on the bracket. All easily accessible, the one bolt on the bracket was a little hidden from view but easy to get too. The elbow that broke was completely missing except the two ends, one in the block and the other in the bracket. They came out fairly easy.

The second elbow looked to be in pretty good shape but given the prior maintenance on this car I would not be surprised the person working on it replaced just the one. I got the metal ones, the plastic ones were grand total of about $3.50 and the metal ones were $7.50 so I splurged and got the metal ones :lol: ... that is with small discount though.

I forgot to buy coolant so I just put some water in it and went and got full strength. Drained most of it when I got back. It takes 11.6 quarts of coolant so I put a little less that 1.5 gallons in it and filled rest with water.

I'll look at this way, it was coolant flush and I was about due if you want to take their recommendations. :D Also the bolt attaching the tensioner pulley was loose, it should be self tightening but I may have saved myself some other grief. Everything else looked good, water pump spun very easily and no play.

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