Buick park avenue white smoke exhaust

[Ineedmomoney]

I have a 2001 Buick Park Ave. my coolant is slowly disappearing, but I have no leak near the thermostat or radiator. I am starting to be concerned that it is going to my engine because there is white smoke coming out of my exhaust pipe but it is very little yet my oil hasn’t gotten milky yet so I have no clue. Can someone please help me

 

[HotZ28]

If it is a Base PA, I would suspect the UIM failure, or the LIM gaskets. If is an Ultra, LIM gaskets. How many miles & has any of those parts ever been changed before??

 

[Ineedmomoney]

If it is a Base PA, I would suspect the UIM failure, or the LIM gaskets. If is an Ultra, LIM gaskets. How many miles & has any of those parts ever been changed before??

It’s the base model idk what a uim is or a lim is but most parts on the car havent been changed since the year it was made

 

[RD_Atlanta]

UIM = Upper Intake Manifold
LIM = Lower Intake Manifold.
I haven't done mine yet but there's several in this forum who have quite a bit of experience with changing them.

 

[02LTD2.0]

I haven't done mine yet and I'm at 177k miles. Regular Green antifreeze was in it when I bought it 5 years ago.

I've done it a few times on previous 3800s but haven't gotten to my current one yet. Maybe I'll do it in the Springtime.

 

[Ineedmomoney]

I found a lil white gunk when I took the top off to see the pistons be honest with me guys am I screwed🫩😂

 

[02LTD2.0]

Exactly what did you take off to see the pistons?

Remove the oil fill cap and look for milky substance in the cap......if it's just clean oil then you're okay.

 

[Ineedmomoney]

Exactly what did you take off to see the pistons?

Remove the oil fill cap and look for milky substance in the cap......if it's just clean oil then you're okay.

I took the whole thing off there wasn’t any in there I was just able to shake the piston back an forth

 

[Ineedmomoney]

Exactly what did you take off to see the pistons?

Remove the oil fill cap and look for milky substance in the cap......if it's just clean oil then you're okay.

This what I saw in the thing that holds the piston down I saw nothing on the pistons at all they where just shaky

 

[DrivenDaily]

That is the valve cover. What you see are not pistons, but valves. To see the pistons, you would need to remove the cylinder head, which is what the valves are installed in.

 

[Ineedmomoney]

That is the valve cover. What you see are not pistons, but valves. To see the pistons, you would need to remove the cylinder head, which is what the valves are installed in.

So what do I need to change for coolent to stop getting in there

 

[DrivenDaily]

What that means is that you have oil and coolant mixing. You need to find out where the leak is and then fix it. It could be a simple fix, or it could be quite involved. You won't know that until you do some digging.

@HotZ28 and @02LTD2.0 have shared some good ideas on where it could be leaking.

 

[02LTD2.0]

That is the valve cover. What you see are not pistons, but valves. To see the pistons, you would need to remove the cylinder head, which is what the valves are installed in.

Actually what they are seeing are rocker arms. Come on @DrivenDaily , you're better than that!

 

[02LTD2.0]

So what do I need to change for coolent to stop getting in there

It could be your UIM starting to fail and letting coolant mix into the intake plenum.
Upper Intake Manifold.

 

[Ineedmomoney]

What should I replace first 😂