98 chevy venture coolant leak.

Hi I am glad i found these forums first off. I have a 98 chevy venture with about 81,000 miles on it. recently started overheating while driving. I refilled the coolant resorvoir and 2 days later it was empty. Started looking around and found the backside of my engine on the drivers side was wet. also a little below the water pump there was a stream of liquid. i checked the water pump and the leek wasnt from it. In the process of eliminating things that could be wrong water started leaking out of muffler, not just the back but in the middle also. i was wondering if this sounds like the manifold problem or could be something else. any help would be great. thanks

yep, sounds like the intake gaskets or even a head gasket. Is it blowing alot of white smoke when you drive?

the water coming through the muffler just started this last time i started it. i wouldnt have thought nothing of the moister behind the van but alot of water started draining out where the exhaust meets the leeds into the fat part of the muffler. was about half a gallon of water that came out there.

well it's obvouis that your coolant is going some where. Since you have found wet locations on an engine that has been run previously it sounds like its time for intakes. But don't feel like your the only one, as most of use here have had these and other problems. Mine is a 99' with 71,000k with bad intakes, which I am about to challenge soon. My advice is to buy or borrow a "Haynes" repair manual for this vehicle, if you plan to tackle it yourself. Have a good set of metric sockets and wrenchs and have a torque wrench that measures in inch/pounds. If you have any other questions we are all here. Hope this helps

yeah i got the manual and tackled the upper intake today. am goin after the lower one tomorrow. thanks for the help i do appreciate it.

the hyanes manual mentions removing the rear brackt on the alternator but doesnt show a picture of it. it says on 97 and 98 models. i took the screw off that ties into the upper manifold is that the only one that needs to come off.

the hyanes manual mentions removing the rear brackt on the alternator but doesnt show a picture of it. it says on 97 and 98 models. i took the screw off that ties into the upper manifold is that the only one that needs to come off.

Hello,
This is my first time here and responding. I'm assuming that you've removed the altenator. I believe three bolts connect the bracket to the engine.
They are on the passenger side of the engine just below where the altenator is mounted. I believe they are different lengths so pay attention to where they go.

I also wanted to advise you to replace the rubber O-rings that are in the coolant system. These are a common problem associated with coolant leaks.

One O-ring is placed on the metal tube that is inserted in the front/passenger side of the engine near the waterpump. This metal tube wraps around the front and drivers side of the engine and supplies coolant to the Throttle Body and then connect to a heater hose. Disconnect the heater hose and replace the O-Ring. If you have two-zone heat, you will have another metal tube connected to the thermastat housing on one end and a heater hose on the other. There are O-rings on each end.

I own a 1998 Venture LS extended. I just recently replaced the engine with an engine I rebuilt from a 2002 Montana.

I am willing to share all that I know about the repair of this vehicle.
I will check back around 10pm tonight!
Good Luck!
Jerome

ok i got the 3 bolts out of that bracket, but the bracket wont budge. is it tied in somewhere else? also that black coolant bypass pipe that runs along the fronstide of engine and goes around by the thermostat housing. i am having hell getting that quick disconnect off. i have tried everything. the black metal pipe ties into a rubber house on the drivers side. any help here would be greatly appreciated. i do appreciate everyones help. thank god i am not the only one who has had to do this.

I apologize. There may be an additional bolt located near the exhaust pipe at the rear of the engine.
Try using needle nose pliers to squeeze the plastic tabs on the quick connect heater hoses and pulling the heater hoses at the same time.
Spray those rubber hoses with WD40 and remove the clamps. They should come off. Also remove the EGR valve from its exhaust pipe (driver side rear near heater hoses) 2 bolts

I remember reading about the hidden fourth bolt that goes vertically into the engine itself, although it is not in the haynes manual, I am sure it is out of eye sight and you have to feel it out. I'll check out the net to see if I can find a good visual picture.

hey, I found this on autozone.com, http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/e1/ed/0900823d801be1ed.jsp, it shows an exploded view of the alternator and bracket. hope this helps

ok it has taken me almost a month to get this van fixed cause i have a bad back and it doesnt seem to care for automotive work or anything else for that matter. i am on the way to putting it back together and i labled everything for the most part, but am confused now. lower intake has 2 4 and 6 stamped on the back, but everything else, spark plug wires, fuel injector electrical wires and so on 2, 4 , 6 is on the fron right. is what i wrote down but was so long ago i cant remember. after i get this resolved should be gettin close to restarting this thing i used to call a car lol.

Hello kevpratt,
The even cylinders are on the front. I had the same problem. I noticed that the odd spark plug wires will not reach the front cylinders properly. So I plugged them to the rear and the even wires to the front. It worked!

ok i got everything back together, bought a brand new battery and tried to start it. nothing. engine turns but doesnt fire. i torqued everything right and put everything back in its original place. i doesnt seem to be pumping the oil upwards. i took the oil cap off and it was still dry. had wife do one crank of engine and it didnt look like any oil was moving. also am not sure it is pulling from the radiator either. i took the bleed screws entirely out and nothing came through them. what could i have missed or am i doing something wrong.

Did you connect all the wiring harness to your coil pack?
It is small plug that fits into left side.
Ensure all other wires are connected as well such as fuel injectors.

i reconnected everything, had problems connecting the small wire that goes from the fuse box area to the drivers side of the ignition coil, but everything else is on there. i believe there were 4 wires to the ignition coil, 1 to a wire directly behind it and then a harness with just one wire in it that went to the alternator. everything else is good as well.

There is another wire behind ignition module that connects to wiring harness.It is easy to miss because it can fall behind engine when wiring harness is taken apart.
If you feel confident of all wiring check if you get spark. If there is spark than it narrows down to fuel.

yeah the one behind is like a 4 pronged connector with two on top and bottom right?

Yeah and it has locking tabs on the connection point. I figure it must be important one. Did you also notice that this wire mounting tab fits onto left hole on coil pack mounting bracket? I assume this is to prevent it from contacting exhuest manifold.

yeah okay my plugs go from passenger to driver
front 2-4-6
back 1-3-5
this is correct right. is frustrating after so much work not to be able to start the crazy thing.

ok i did the restarting after engine overhaul procedure and still nothing. the engine turns but will not fire. i have checked my wires over and over. there are no visible leaks anywhere and the battery was just purchased yesterday. the van was running before i replaced the intake gaskets. any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Pratt !!

If you removed plug wires when you took coil pack off recheck to ensure they are plugged in right order. Remember there are 2 wires each to every coil and on the coil pack they are numbered accordingly. After checking wires check for spark at the plug.

There are three electrical connections for the ignition coil pack on my 98 venture. You may want to check to see if yours is the same. If you are getting a spark, it might be the fuel. Make sure the fuel has reached the engine(priming). To do this, swich the key to the on position. You should hear the fuel pump. Do this a couple of times. If you have a fuel pressure gauge with a bleed off line, bleed the air out of the fuel line. By the way, how old is the fuel in the car? If it is old, it may not start. Add some fresh fuel. Keep us updated!

ok we narrowed it down to the plugs getting no spark. there is a wire that comes by itself from a group of wires under the fuse box. i believe this wire is the problem because it is the only one that is difficult to put in. i believe it goes to the drivers side of the ignition coil. could someone check this for me. also oddly enough none of my courtesy lamps are working either. not even the reading lamps. it was all fine before and i dont have any blown fuses. other than the ignition and the dome lights everything else seems to be working. and the dome light cutoff isnt the problem either. i appreciate everyones resp0nses so far.

ok here is some further info. my courtesy lamp fuse is blown. that every fuse i put in there blows immediately. that fuse is a 10. if i put a 15 in there it doesnt blow. the fuse under the hood for the ignition is a 15. is it possible i have 2 of these connectors backwards. maybe my ignition is going through the dome lights and my dome lights are hooked up somewhere else. i know these two systems tie in together somewhere if someone could tell me what color connector go where on that ignition module it would help. is a 98 model venture

ok here is some further info. my courtesy lamp fuse is blown. that every fuse i put in there blows immediately. that fuse is a 10. if i put a 15 in there it doesnt blow. the fuse under the hood for the ignition is a 15. is it possible i have 2 of these connectors backwards. maybe my ignition is going through the dome lights and my dome lights are hooked up somewhere else. i know these two systems tie in together somewhere if someone could tell me what color connector go where on that ignition module it would help. is a 98 model ventureMost of the connectors are keyed so that they can't be interchanged. If I remember off the top of my head, their are 3 connectors going to the ignition module. The single connector on the passenger side and the larger (front) connector on the driver side I beleive are part of the same bundle. There also is a connector that comes up from what appears to be the transmission that is green (again IIRC). On my car there was a single pair of wires that comes out from under the fuse box. This was originally for an overhead light for under the hood but had been removed/broke by the previous owner. I don't have access to the connector right at the moment, but it's possible maybe that you plugged this one in by mistake, if it happened to be keyed the same.

ok here is where my problem is. on the ignition control module there are 3 connectors 1 on the passenger side and two on the drivers side. on the drivers side the one on the front is a larger one and the one beside it is smaller. i need to know where the wires for the smaller one come from. they are not part of the wrap around harness. i have them all connected but cant find the crankshaft position sensor connector that is supposed to go in that hole. is supposed to be a yellow and purple wire. does it come up from behind the engine? I appreciate everyones help i am this wire from gettin this crazy van goin again. we are gonna trade it in for a saturn i think lol. something with a warranty lol.

i have them all connected but cant find the crankshaft position sensor connector that is supposed to go in that hole. is supposed to be a yellow and purple wire. does it come up from behind the engine? I appreciate everyones help i am this wire from gettin this crazy van goin again.That wire would likely have fallen behind the engine. Looking at it, it would almost appear that the wire was coming from the transmission. It may be easier to run the car up on ramps and look up behind the engine from the bottom if it dropped down that far. It also could have fallen towards throttle body or under the intake duct work.

cdru your info helped me greatly. i found that crazy wire layin down there. got everything hooked up and the van started right up. more good news no leaks so far. we are looking at the saturn relay to trade for. is the new version of the chevy venture but doesnt have a bad sticker on it. thanks to everyone for your help. if i get that new relay i will let everyone know what it is like.

cdru your info helped me greatly. i found that crazy wire layin down there. got everything hooked up and the van started right up. more good news no leaks so far. we are looking at the saturn relay to trade for. is the new version of the chevy venture but doesnt have a bad sticker on it. thanks to everyone for your help. if i get that new relay i will let everyone know what it is like.Glad I could help. Whenever I've "been there, done that", I never mind lending a hand. Especially since much of what I've learned has been a result of other people writing about when they were "been there, done that".

I have no idea about the Saturn Relay, but I did own a SL2 a few years back. It was under powered and parts always seemed to cost 2x as much. The fuel filter was over $100 because it also contained the regulator. A broken plastic clip that holds up the window cost me $300 because it was only available if you purchased the whole window regulator motor/mechanism. That was just my experience with Saturn...a "different kind of car company" or whatever their slogan was.