2009 SS/TC
96k miles
Build date: April 2009

I have had the car since 80k miles, the first year and a half I had it the "low coolant" indicator might have come on once or twice. I never thought anything of it.

Just within the past 2 months the car will go through enough coolant to get the "low coolant' warning in about 400 miles which is about a half quart.

What I've looked at so far...

-No coolant in oil or vice versa. No abnormal oil level
-Leakdown compression test found nothing
-Used UV dye and checked from top and bottom for external leaks
-Does not leak when car is moving, no antifreeze smell present underhood
-Engine does not smoke or steam and exhaust doesn't have an antifreeze smell
-Car runs completely normally, no CEL's or other problems.

So question is, am I missing anything that should be checked. I'm thinking this sounds like a classic case of porous block. Does anybody know if GM stands behind these or will cut you a deal on a new engine? I'm thinking the LDK might be the best option right now.

Also in the event that I tear this apart, which I probably won't until the coolant consumption makes it impossible to drive, is there a specific location where the water jacket fails most of the time?

I tried to find some pictures of the failure, does it actually develop a nice visible crack or is it tough to spot? If anybody knew and could chime in that'd be awesome.

 

Ah Crap! I hope GM will still warranty this. It's been pass 5 years and I don't know if GM will still honor this. I hope they do, cause I have an 09 too. I did asked Chevrolet dealer about this and they said they don't see any recall for this. I was shocked and concern if I get ZZP 1.0 PCM installed then BAM loosing coolant. So far I am not loosing coolant. I am in 68,000 miles right now.

 

Check the hoses. Check the hose at bottom of coonant res, have to take fuse box off, I had a leak on mine there

 

That was the first one I took a look at, no luck sadly.

 

go under the car and look where the rad mounts to the subframe. it may be broken, my mounting tabs were broken off, but not leaking, there was another guy who had his broken and was leaking.

 

I've had my 09 for 5 months I've gotten a low coolant message twice. I turned the car off I check the coolant level and its fine. Started it back up no message.... any thoughts on this?

 

Yours could possible be a bad sensor in the resivour . If the level was truly OK and your getting the message. Unless perhaps you where on a hill and your resivour was just under the proper level causing the low coolant light to come on.

 

Coolant could still get to the oil and not show high oil level for a slow leak (coolant will burn out/distill out of the oil if the enginge runs for longer periods of time). Best to have an analysis done on the oil to check for coolant. See BlackStone labs for analysis kits. Blackstone Labs

 

my cars been at the dealership for 2 1/2 months awaiting a engine due to cracked block the first 2 times i did not notice any coolant in the oil but then ouut of no where it drank 2 quarts and thats all she wrote i pulled the dip stick and oil was flowing out the dipstick with alot of coolant. gm told me october until the engine "may" be ready

 

i had my car get the porous block on a trip with my gf and my low coolant light came on and i stopped and saw it was empty luckily there was a wal mart a mile away so went and got some dex cool put it in and drove home got home still had coolant so i thought oh well it was just low, this was all before i knew about the porous block. then the next morning i get up for work and start the car low coolant again so i filled it back up and needless to say i went through a gallon and a half of coolant in less then 2 days so if you have a porous block check your oil for a milky texture and if so better get a new motor lol also i had no check engine lights, no smoke nothing. really the only way to tell is the coolant in the oil as far as i know. good luck though

 

I've already got the kit, will probably send the oil in sometime late next month.

Radiator tabs and all seem to be intact, but thanks for the suggestion.


To those that got their engine replaced, im assuming all of you had them go earlier on? Or has anybody had any headway getting one replaced up around 100k miles? Technically my car is out of warranty, but its absolutely ridiculous to buy a car for 12 grand and only get a year and half out of it

 

my car was out of warrenty by 2 months i had a 3rd party warrenty the stealership sold me

 

Definitely would not buy an '09 version of this car. I can live without the usb.

 

Buy a '10, they come with USB.

 

had this problem. GM gave me a new engine for free. i only had 36,000km on the ticker. no cloud of smoke, no oil leaks, just low coolant once ina while. it overheated one day. empty resevoir and some water droplets on the oil fill cap. dipstick didn't show much.

whether or not you will get a new engine or not depends on the dealership and what has been done to the car.

goodluck!

 

The car is completely stock, so I expect it to not die for a long time.

Does anybody know if they put out a technical service bulletin on this? The dealer I contacted told me they had no idea what I was talking about. Or should I call GM's corporate customer service number?

 

So any 2010s get porus block?

 

I have an 09, build date is April 09 too, 70k miles no problems.

Also 09's have usb... Lol...

And I don't think any 2010's have this block issue...

 

No 2010s have the porous block issue.

 

Update:
Results of oil analysis have returned. Although I couldn't smell it or see it there was coolant in the oil. Around 1.4% by volume with only 1700 miles on the oil.

I have come to notice that if the car is driven with a light foot the coolant takes a very long time to go down. Whereas getting into heavy boost will drain the overflow bottle quite fast.

I talked to somebody at Blackstone Labs and he mentioned another thing that caught my interest. He said that in the past he had seen some ecotec engines with small amounts of coolant ending up in the oil and the source ultimately turned out to be the water pump.

I believe the pump is driven by a chain under the front cover, but the body sits on the back side of the engine. I just assumed that if the pump was going that it would leak externally...is it possible that it could be leaking into the sealed front cover and then getting into the oil pan through the balance shaft bores or some such?

Additionally how would one check on this? I see an access hatch on the front cover that looks to be approximately over the pump pulley. Can I remove that cover and then run the engine or is that cover there for another reason?

 

Looking to buy a LNF, kind of glad I ran into this thread. So 2008 & 2010 are ok in this manner? 2009 make sure to get an extended warranty on? I want to keep a relatively stock car other than tint/exhaust.

 

Nope, from what we have seen, the only safe ones are possibly 2010 but have seen at least one 2010 with it.

 

Keep us up-to-speed on this. I'm following because my car is in the dealer due to a cracked block.

 

Hmm.. guess get a warranty with any one I plan on buying unless it has had it happen already. Aside of a clean maintenance history, seeing cracked rad mounts, and a below minimum coolant res, what is a common sign of this when buying preowned? I have a friend who bought a red '06 LSJ with 150k miles on it a year ago and her boyfriend needed to replace the head gasket due to coolant in the oil he claimed. Car currently sits at 170k miles.

 

The LSJ doesn't have this problem only the LNF