Intake gasket water leak?

[pjr]

Hi guys, been using other peoples questions to aswer mine but now I'm stuck. 97 Explorer with 4L OHO has been using water for some time. I may put in a gallon every 5000 miles. Yesterday that changed now every ten miles to fill it up. I was thinking blown head gasket so I started down that road but while taking things a part and looking at the plugs I don't know. All plugs look ok. No I did not do a compresion check. This truck had a dealer change the intake before and I don't know how tight the bolts should be but almost could take them out with my fingers. Trying to be careful as I took the old gasket off it looks like it let go on the right rear corner into the oil galley. So what do you think put new one in and give it a try or keep going. Help thank you pjr

 

[rmcknight]

i must be confused, (all over again). with your OHV engine, how can water be in or near the air intake manifold? water should stay in the block and the head(s).
so how can intake removal and replacement fix a water leak?

 

[pjr]

I was a suprised myself

I did not know this until I took off the intake. The heads are ported into the intake to get to the thermastat. the heads are also ported in the back and are blocked by the intake. Mine was leaking from one of the back ports into the oil galley. Fixed that but to late, washed out the bearings. Pulled the pan today and oil pump was almost blocked. Pulled rod bearing and they were ok but the mains are just shot along with the crank. So now I pull the engine which is what I should have done to start with. Don't know what to do now with a 97, 160000 miles, antilock light on dash, and overdrive light that flashes some times. What do you think? It's the wifes car.

 

[MrShorty]

rmcknight: I can't for sure on all OHV engines, but it's not uncommon for coolant to flow between the cylinder heads and the lower intake manifold. If you look at the picture shamaal posted in my other thread, you can see the coolant passages at the front and rear of the intake manifold (also note that the thermostat attaches to the front of the intake manifold, so obviously coolant has to be in the manifold somewhere).

So what do you think put new one in and give it a try or keep going. Help thank you pjr

Good question. Since I'm kind of looking at the same scenario, I'm not sure myself. Mechanics I've talked to suggest just doing the intake manifold before worrying about the cylinder heads, but my engine doesn't show any signs of combustion gases in the coolant, so there's reason to believe the heads/gaskets are still good.

If you have reason to believe that the heads and head gaskets are ok, I might cross my fingers and reassemble.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[pjr]

I would put in the intake gasket and hope. It took care of my water leak. I just did't do it soon enough. pjr

 

[MrShorty]

I was wondering if maybe the bearings were gone when you said it was leaking into the oil. Did you have indications of coolant in the oil (milkshake in the oil and such)? I haven't had any indications coolant getting into the oil, but that doesn't mean the intake gasket couldn't still be bad.

If I do decide to go ahead, how difficult would you rate the intake manifold? I replaced the intake manifold gasket on my '98 GM Vortec 5.7 last fall, would this one be significantly more difficult? Easier? Of course, to answer this question effectively, you'd probably have had to have done one of those, too, so maybe you can't say.

 

[pjr]

water in oil

Yes I had water in the oil but only when it totaly failed. I could never figure out for the last year where the water was going. Bearing failure was cuased by me because I made the mistake of thinking I just needed to add water indicated by high temp. Made the trip home and that was the end. Changing the intake is no big deal other then figuring out how to unclip all the wires. The right side is wide open but the left is tight because of the pile of wire on that side. Did nothing from the bottom other then the crank sensor. Carquest sold me the intake kit for 78 dollars. Fuel injector oring where not in this set and cost me 7 dollars. It took me a long day this time but next would be half that. Good luck pjr