Is it intake or head gasket

Ok my 89 gta has 40k miles.last couple summers ive lost very small amounts of antifreeze.This summer at startup it runs ruff for a minute an now shows signs of a little smoke.Antifreeze is getting thru somewhere.There is no sign of any in the oil.I jus now got intake off cant really see any visuals of it transferring from one port to another.I guess i just want an edgucated guess as to go onto heads or not.Ive never done it only thing not sure about is valves,valve lash etc.Does any of this have to be reset or adjusted.By the way it is a 5.7 tuned port.dave

is it over heating real quick? or over time? and can you see any coolant stains down the side of the block??

It has never overheated at all no signs of antifreeze anywhere.i have heard the overflow bubbling a little when i shut it off a few times.also looking in the overflow i can see very fine metallic pieces an some dirty sludge in bottom.these flakes look like the inside of the tuneport mabe im jus not sure what to do

if it were a head gasket itd over heat and you would see signs of antifreeze on the sides of the block from my experiances, as far as the sludge and metal shavings im not sure on mine i replaced the thermostat and mine stoped bubbling

Im burning antifreeze.its mostly at startup idles ruff til it burns it out im lookin in the heads ports now and i see no antifreeze except where they should be.i guess ill put it back together with the new intake gaskets ans see what happens.

I think the seals need replacement. These seals are, in your motor's sides, and are metallic, round and slightly bigger than a silver dollar.

I think the seals need replacement. These seals are, in your motor's sides, and are metallic, round and slightly bigger than a silver dollar.


Freeze plugs, exactly what I was thinking.

However, if there are shavings in the overflow tank, perhaps the water pump is done.

Yeah, those....... thanks wrightz28, I just could not remember the name.

Thanks for getting involved.Now why would i b burning antifreeze out exhaust.where would it get thru.Is it possible the intake could allow it threw

by the way the shavings are almost microscopic.shining a light down in when i shake overflow it just barely glitters.It would go thru a screen

if your not seeing anything wrong with intake/gasket i'd pull heads
dont believe the freeze plugs are your problem
btw valves should be a torque to spec no adjustment

As said, I'd suspect the shavings as a water pump problem. A freeze plug could be a (unrelated) problem with weeping, it does happen, the previous owner blew one out on my GTA and the replacement still weeps ever so slightly due to a lazy bum install job. Any point where the system is no longer sealed, lowers the boiling point of the coolant.

Before you go yanking the heads, get yourself a compression guage to confirm a head gaslet issue.

Ok wright can i do a test for heads with intake already off>?