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jwscab wrote:now, as far as your engine is concerned Halgar, is/was it truly piston slap, or was it rod knock that caused replacement? The piston slap issue is more audible than anything. The hypereutectic pistons used needed less piston to bore clearance than was initially designed, but other than a nuisance noise on cold start-up, never really caused engine damage in the typical lifespan of these motors.

All I know is that the shop supposedly sends warranty replacements back to the factory for inspection. Other than that I can't say much. Regardless of the issue, I'll stand with my comment that they've been designing knock free engines for decades until this one. I'm not spending over 30K on a vehicle that's supposed to be top of the line, only to have it knock and rattle, and not just at cold start.

finally bled out the power steering and put on the revalved road racer steering pump.
i hooked it up without a cooler and drove it around in stop and go chicago traffic, no groans, no power steering fluid boilover and no leaks.
the steering effort increased a little, definitely makes if feel more crisp and carvy when driving and you absolutely cannot park with a single finger anymore.

when i drained and refilled my coolant again, i noticed more of that evil freaky slime on my coolant dipstick at the very top of the level 'full' indicator. i'm hoping that the remainder of the pwr strng fluid that is in my cooling system will get purged out into the overflow,where it will float on the top of the antifreeze and not get re-circulated. next year i'll take it off and clean it out.

i need to take a pic of the factory cooler. its actually pretty trick even tho its made like crap...

Oh man, gotta love the dexcool. Just like the plastic intake gaskets they used for how many years? All od the heat cycles caused them to crack. The problem was it took a few years to discover but even after it was an apparent problem they still turned them out for a few years. If you were buying a used mid 90's to early 2000 GM, plan on replacing the intake gaskets. The only good thing was they usually leak externally.

Der Kommissar wrote: If you were buying a used mid 90's to early 2000 GM, plan on replacing the intake gaskets. The only good thing was they usually leak externally.

That happened on my 95. Oil started pooling on the intake manifold. Thankfully it was an easy fix.

Yup, I had to replace my intake gasket on my '03 Malibu at 127k.