^ Thanks. The photo above shows just one elbow -- where does the other one hide?

 

They are both attached to the tensioner and the one to the intake and the other to the waterpump area. You cant see the second one unitl you start to remove the tensioner then it becomes visable. I just found out yesterday that the aluminum ones are available at O'reilly's! My store carries them.

Massey

 

I stumbled across those aluminum elbows on rockauto a while back and bought a set. Should have used something like this from the start. Mine are leaking for sure, but I haven't gotten them in yet. Will update you all with how they work.

 

Well, I picked up the aluminum replacements -- good tip guys! Why GM didn't use these in the first place?! Now to remove that tensioner claptrap -- got to love how GM combines parts… *rolls eyes**

 

Well I don't regret the swap as preventative maintenance, but this was likely not the leak -- o-rings were serviceable, and no plastic cracks. On to the gasket leak theory… If only I could find the smoking gun!

 

I had to do mine 2x when I put the new engine in my 99. The first time I didnt put anything on the O-rings and one of them leaked coolant on to my intake which would only become visable on the driver's side of the car. Took me a while to figure it out I thought it was the intake manifold... until I started taking the car apart to replace the intake and found the source of the water. I re-sealed them with some bearing grease and no more leaky elbows for me.

Massey

 

^ Massey, I took your advice and used some high-temp bearing grease on the new o-ring aluminum elbows. Thanks for that tip! I think the leak must be elsewhere, but time will tell...

 

I did get mine in and it fixed my leak. I used some petroleum jelly on the o-rings when I put them in.

 

When removing the old plastic tubes, I noticed some red hardened paste around the o-rings and in the housings -- looks like someone previous or the factory uses RTV there?!

Perhaps I should redo the job with some RTV then?


Also, I just saw this video, and believe it should apply to our 4th Gen 3.8Ls too -- perhaps this is my real issue?

 

You do know that the in intake gasket on the 3800 is a very common issue. It was even part of a class action law suit, GM was forced to cover the intakes 10 years 100,000 miles and they even had to write checks to the people who already paid to have it done.

I think it is kind of funny that the mechanic can find proof of a leak and you have coolant lose but he can not find the issue. If I had told my service manager I know there is a leak I just can not find it he would just stared at me like I was a moron until I went back to the car and found the leak.

The FWD have plastic upper intakes and they have issues our case aluminum UIM do not have.