So I'm getting a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville on the 10th of this month. The issue is that it has a blown head gasket (According to him) I was thinking it could have been that or the upper or lower intake manifold gaskets. I'm decent with mechanic work but I will not throw out 1000 on head gasket repair when I can do it my self for 100-200 bucks. So upon receiving the car who has experience with this kind of stuff? I've watched a lot of videos doing this repair on the car and it seems pretty straight forward but I would like to have someone on hand in the event that I need a question answered and such.

many of the members here have the answers to your questions so ask away

_________________
poverty forces one to do unorthodox things

2000 SSEi
past rides:
1996 SSEi
1992 GTP
1987 Grand Am

It is 99.9999999999999999999999999999% not the head gasket. Is the car supercharged or NA?

_________________
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

My question, however, is "Why does he believe it's failed?"

If it is ingesting coolant, that is one thing. If there is some chocolate milkshake action going on in the crank case, then how long has it been in there?

Rod and crank bearings don't like the chocolate milkshake action...

_________________
~Randall~


1993 Buick Park Avenue - 197k - Some odds and ends done - Simply won't die
1994 Buick Regal - 78k - Bone stock - Always ready for a good kicking
1990 Oldsmobile 88 - Gone to a better place

He said it's been burning coolant and smokes a lot. He doesn't have the money to get someone to fix it. I mean if its burning coolant so I would assume it would either be head gasket or the intake manifold gaskets.

And if it is well time for a mass oil change. My plan was to change the oil after the repair, run it for about 10-20 minutes and then change the oil again. Hopefully that should get most if not all the coolant that may be in there. Just playing it safe here.

It's the SE model so It's N/A.

Sounds like it has a bad upper intake manifold. The plastic degrades around the EGR and the throttle body coolant loop ends up pouring into the cylinders. If you remove the throttle body (attached with 3 10mm nuts) and take a peak inside the upper intake with a flash light, you will likely see that the lower intake is filled with coolant.

If you decide to buy the car, prepare to replace the upper intake, lower intake gaskets, and do a couple of oil changes.

_________________
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

Yeah I hope it's not that. I mean I'll still buy the car but I really dont want to throw another 250 bucks into it. We'll see I guess!

If he's been driving it with coolant in the oil, I would consider the engine being already gone when figuring your purchase price.
The journal bearings in these engines are not like older cars and it doesn't take much for them to get ate up.

The car is 250 bucks. I mean I could easily part it out and make my money back and buy a different one. We'll see when I take it apart.

So here is an update. I checked it out today and the engine had a lot of oil near both valve covers. I checked the oil and looks like no coolant in the oil. It also ran pretty rough and took a couple cranks to start.

For $250, you really can't go wrong--regardless of whether it's an SE, SLE or SSEi.
Oil near the valve covers is typically just leaking valve cover gaskets.
Some mechanics have been known to misdiagnose LIM/UIM problems as blown head gaskets.
I'd ask the PO if he ever overheated the engine.
If no, then chances of a headgasket being blown is nearly zero.
Upper and lower intake issues cause coolant to travel where it shouldn't.
Coolant entering the cylinders can cause starting problems, too.
If coolant is getting into the cylinders, you face the danger of hydrolock, which can seriously damage the engine.
You can turn the engine over with all the spark plugs removed (and ignition disabled) to blow out any coolant that got in any cylinders.
The first thing to check is compression.
If that's OK, then move on to replacing the LIM gaskets and UIM. How-to details are in the Techinfo section.

See and that's the thing. It hasn't overheated. We started it but it was really rough. Took a couple cranks and pumping the gas to get it to go and of course the rough idle. No smoke came from exhaust but a little bit of steam or oil smoke came from the top end. I'm glad though the coolant hasn't made its way to the bottom end. It's a for sure thing we will be getting it on the 10th so when she is mine I will be uploading pictures for y'all to take a gander at.