My van has the 3.3L engine and just over 18,000km (11,250miles) on it. Picked it up brand new last year. When I lifted the hood I saw a crack on the engine just behind where you add oil to it (see pic with crack circled).

Before I head over to the dealer, any thoughs on what's wrong with the engine, why it cracked in the first palce and what I should expect/do at the dealer? I already checked for codes using the trick to turn the key from off to on three times and nothing, only the word "DONE" came up.

By the way, I had bubbles on my engine oil dipstick before (see my prior posts), but strangely it went away when I had a quick lube change my oil with Castrol GTX instead of going to the dealer, could it be related?

I checked all the fluids already (engine oil, trans, coolant, power steering etc) and levels are fine and they look pretty good to me. The only other issue i have is bad fuel economy.

Any thoughs would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

 

Hi , Looks like a bad gasket between the head & intake manifold ! Bud

 

Done means, no stored codes. Do you see any leaks coming from that crack? If it not leaking, it maybe the way the intake manifold was cast.

 

Looks too machined to be a random crack. If fluids OK likely OK but still have dealer look at it.

I am going to check my 2010 later this morning to see if similar mark.

 

I checked mine and no crack.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. Master tech, there are no fluids coming from it. I know my picture isn't that clear, but when I looked at it closely, I can actually see it as a crack going inside about one to two millimeters. It's not deep enough to penetrate, but I'm afraid that the strength of the head has been compromised or it could split wide open in the future (especially with the extreme hot and cold we get here).