So I've had my thirdgen for about 5 years now and I just picked up a 2.8 v6 for my wife and it been quite a pain.

did a full ignition tune up cap rotor wires plugs etc. While doing the plugs I found the 2 rear plugs on the passenger side are coated in freash oil, not burnt. Am I safe to assume that the valve guides are toast? if the oil was burnt I'd say rings but its fresh and only on 2 plugs. The EGR has been cleaned out and the intake has been cleaned the best I can with it on, no codes, and I did an IAC/ tps reset. The previous owner had the idle screw cranked up all the way so.... that got undone.

I want to know all the problematic areas on a v6, I know the egr has issues but that's all I know.

any info would be appreciated, I may have a replacement 2.8 lined up for less than it would cost me to rework the heads

 

on a separate note what are the differences between a 2.8 head and a 3.1? I ran across a spare set of heads for a 3.1 but to my knowledge the only difference is the 3.1 is a stroked 2.8, wouldn't the heads differ to allow better airflow? if not I'm golden I just need to coax a few friends with a 30 pack and spend a day tinkering on the nightmare car

 

heads are the same, between the fuel injected 2.8/3.1/3.4 the only heads that are different are tghe carbed 2.8 heads which are very very crappy

 

If you remove the heads look at the Valve steam seals also, they might be causeing the oil loaded plugs that youve found. Thats a cheep fix. About 10-15 bucks for the unbrella type ones. Good matenince to the car if you take the heads off.

This link is just so ya know what I mean by umbrella ones incase you need them. Just ask for ones for a v8 camaro insted, and ask for umbrella ones. They work well. Ive had them in my car for awhile now and they've taken a beating..literly, and no oil blow by.
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...equestid=11388

 

I wouldn't tear into the engine just yet. Generally, oil on the plugs is most likely a sign that the oil is actually on the outside of the engine, from leaking valve covers, especially if the oil is nice and runny on the outside of the plug and not burnt onto the electrodes. Leaking valve covers causes a bunch of issues other than oil leaks, including vacuum leaks, which does very little to make driveability easier.

There's already a thread on problematic parts on the 2.8/3.1...

 

Well the thing is the passanger side is damp from oil, the driver is wet which I know is the valve cover, drivers plugs were clean of oil though, I landed a good set of 3.1 heads from a local guy so I might as well get them worked and tear up the top end and replace the gaskets, I know the valve covers and a few other gaskets are done for because when I seafoamed it the engine was letting out some smoke from various points. I'm not afraid to tear up a motor I've done my 305 plenty lol

I've got my work cut out for me I'm going to do a custom headlight harness if I can't figure out wtf is up with the factory setup

 

while ur at it u might as well port the heads, it wont cost u nothing and the added power will help out with intown stop and go driving

 

Hopefully, it is your valve seals or valve cover gaskets.

I have to put new valve seals in my 87 Cam 2.8 as well, after it sits for awhile you can see a bit of blue smoke coming out the tail pipe. Deterioration of o-ring valve seals is common I have found throughout the threads on the forums. Honestly, it isn't that much work, but can be tiring while having the heads on the car. Get yourself a Felpro Intake Set ($17.99 at advanceauto), then for the seals I bought two sets of umbrella seals with o-rings from rockauto for $5 a pop or get the felpro set from advance. Then tear into it, use rope or compressed air to remove the valves one by one and replace the seals.

AS for problematic areas, I have always had exhaust manifold sealing issues. Either broken bolts or the whole y-pipe donuts sealing issue. T-tops and rear hatch leaking, if you have them. Recently, my harmonic balancer was giving me the shakes...so check the rubber seal on yours. Everyone has different problems, but generally overall I haven't had too much of a hassle except for my heating issue...NO HEAT!!!!!! Dumb heater core.

 

btw can you post a link to that thread search has become useless with the psychotic overabundance of topics you type v6 common problems and you get a bunch of swap threads

 

I tried looking for a single thread but came up with nothing. Just make sure when you search you search only in the V6 forum. I owned 2 2.8's for a total of 5 years. The only problems I ran into were: distributor o-ring leak, valve seal leaks (common), radiator leaked, exhaust leaks (y-pipe, and manifold), EGR mounting blows, Mass Air Flow Sensor (Both my 2.8s needed it, had acceleration issues and sometimes threw codes), my Pontiac had a rear main seal leak, and a bad oil pressure switch or sensor whichever it is, TPS bolts break easily (hand tighten them)

I know some of these are common some may not be, but I know these are generally the problems I had. My 220,000 2.8L needed some head work done too, developed fuel tank vapor leaks from the fuel pump seal going bad.

 

yeah I figured they'd have their own set of issues, I'm not new to the thirdgen game by any means but I can honestly say this is the first v6 I've worked on lol I expected seals and such, the mottor has "35k" on it which h I don't believe for a second because I've rolled my odometer twice lol I'm taking this as a worst case scenario and judging from the maintenance I've seen idk if a full top end rebuild would be so bad lol it runs but the oil on the plugs has got me on edge, problematic or not I've always been an overachiever when it comes to my cars lol