This isn’t a performance question or even a cobalt question so apologies for that but I need some info so hopefully I’m in the right place.

so 2yrs ago a guy brought me a 2009 malibu to be fixed that he had overheated. After quoting him for the repair he said he was going to scrap it and $500 later I owned a clean malibu. Decked the head, new timing chain and water pump and she ran great. 80 miles later, the temps started climbing and I found most of the coolant ended up in the crankcase. That’s when I learned about the porous block and tried blue devil because why the hell not. Well that worked for a little over a year and now it’s steadily drinking water. Not enough to milk the oil but enough to show up on the oil fill cap.

so now I’m considering replacing the motor which I believe is an le5. My question is what are my options so I don’t end up with another porous block? I just need the thing to get great mileage and be problem free for my wife

 

I hadn't heard of the LE5 having a porous block issue, but if you want to avoid it then get a different year than 09.

 

I’m pretty sure it’s an LE5, I’m only recently wiki educated on it. It’s a 2009 malibu 2.4. I’ve been digging and it looks like the porous block was specifically plagued to cars with an 08 build date so it looks like it’s as simple as like you said, just buying a different year motor.

so question, are all these motors the same? Cam, head, compression and all that? Also how common exactly is the porous block issue?