Rebuilding a 3.8?

So I talked to someone the other day about my radiator having black gunk in it and was told it's probablt oil. This would mean a bad headgasket. So if I was to get my engine fixed up would it be worth just rebuilding with higher end parts? I imagine my car won't go above 350hp, since it will be my daily driver but if I'm pulling the engine I fogured I might as well get the whole thing redone if I'm going to be pulling anything apart.

Thoughts? Oh the engine has about 150 to 165 on it

It is about that time. It could be that the person that replaced the head gaskets didn't flush the coolant and radiator when done. what does the engine oil look like? Milkshake, mud? If not you might be alright. If oil pressure and temp are ok, you should be alright.

My temp gauge doesn't work lol. Oils pressure is fine. Drives normal

Not nessisarily head gaskets. Could be an oil cooler, or as stated just needs flushed. If you want to be sure get the kit that detects exhaust gas in the coolant.

I pulled my throttle body the other day and noticed a fair amount of oil behind it. Could that be a signal for worn cylinder walls?

That's normal with the way the PVC system is set up for the drivers side. My fresh rebuild has some oil in the Tb even.

Metalcorpse said:

I pulled my throttle body the other day and noticed a fair amount of oil behind it. Could that be a signal for worn cylinder walls?

Click to expand...

If you notice there is a tube that comes off the front of the drivers side valve cover and travels under the supercharger snout and back into the intake...this is where the oil comes from and its normal and doesn't indicate anything bad.

-Tim

Yea it doesn't seem too bad. I'm just curious if I should rebuild it since I'll be adding so any things to it. I'd hate to drop a few grand on it and it just breaks down. On top of that I was told the best build engines on sccoa are rebuild with better internals, the crank in particular

Metalcorpse said:

Yea it doesn't seem too bad. I'm just curious if I should rebuild it since I'll be adding so any things to it. I'd hate to drop a few grand on it and it just breaks down. On top of that I was told the best build engines on sccoa are rebuild with better internals, the crank in particular

Click to expand...

Unless you have a cast crank the crank will just be re-ground. Have you considered contacting David at SCUI? Let him know what you want and he can advise how to get there.

As pointed out, the PCV system on these cars routes through to before the throttle body (from the driver's side valve cover), and also from the passenger's valve cover (where the PCV valve is), to the intake plenum. There is some oil/ blowby gunk that gets in there, and that's normal.

Also, it could be the lower manifold gaskets failing, if you're getting a light brown coloured almost foam like substance at the top of the rad or overflow tank. This was happening on my Mustang, and the lower intake manifold gaskets were starting to not seal in between the coolant passages and the surrounding passages.