Intake manifold 2001 Lesabre

Ok, so I took my intake manifold cover off and I want to know where should I see antifreeze.

As I look at it I notice 6 square holes which are empty of any coolant. and I see antifreeze all around them, on the outside of them. Is that how it should look? I emptied the coolant from the radiator but it is still in the intake.

Now I am unsure of if any antifreeze was actually leaking in those 6 holes but I don't actually see any antifreeze just sitting there. (I hope I'm making sense) I assume those 6 holes go to the spark plugs???

A pic of where I should see antifreeze would be helpful.

Wait

I went into my garage with a flash light and I looked into the 6 ports. I found antifreeze down towards the bottom of three of them.

I assume that is towards the spark plugs. So now my question is this.

Does this mean this is a bad manifold plenum or gasket (I would change both if it was)

Or could this still be a head gasket problem? I hope it isn't, but if it is I will continue to tear this thing apart.



I should also mention that I have some coolant going into the throttle body as well. and I had some coolant in the air intake bendable hose that goes to the air filter as well.

It sure sounds like you have a bad upper intake (plenum). Look carefully around the EGR port for cracking & or porosity.

I could be wrong but with a 2001 lesabre I don't think the EGR is a problem like in the previous years.

The EGR is separate from the intake on mine. But I do have a metal hose that comes from the EGR and into the intake it has coolant in it. I am unsure if that is what it is supposed to have in it though.

Does the pic below look familiar? If so, you have EGR tube 'burn out' in the UIM. BTW, all EGR's are "separate from the intake" on this particular engine and have a tube from the EGR to the throttle body section or the UIM. Replace the UIM, 2001 is not exempt from this failure! BTW, don't forget to change the oil several times during the first 1K miles after repair.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/3821/068nv9.jpg

Yes it looks pretty much exactly like that. Were you standing behind me when you took that?? "Thats creepy"


Ok so I have question Hot, should "any" antifreeze be in the intake or should I clean it all out. I have a pretty good understanding that it shouldn't be in the ports like I see in the picture above. But what about the middle part of the intake (the two halves) should the antifreeze be there?

I feel pretty good about it being the intake. I thought it was a head gasket. Whew!!! I just want to fix it up nice so I can sell it. Love the car still.

Thanks

Remove all signs of coolant from "the two halves" it should not be there! Once you get the UIM replaced and the car running again, you may want to keep it! :iceslolan

None of the coolant in the above picture should be there.

Thanks guys.

I'm still debating if I should keep it actually. My truck or the car. My truck (ole Betsy is still my favorite).

George (the Lesabre) was my wifes car but I just bought her a new Lacrosse.

I'll let you all know how the car works when I fix "George" up.

Thanks again

I just put the new manifold on the car with a new gasket set and now I have a few questions.

I probably should have asked this before I installed the new manifold.

1. What is the straw like apparatus that is attatched to the manifold gasket? It has a curved end to it? I assume it is to suck air into a sensor or something? I think I put it where it should go. I saw a picture and placed it in the exact same position that I saw in the picture.

2. The egr stovepipe just fits into the manifold (wider bottom) and sticks up through the plenum (thiner top part of stove pipe) where there is an opening? Nothing else needed to be done there I hope.

I then bolted the manifold down with the required torque settings (I did the circuit 3 times increasing torque until 89 inch pounds.

Does this sound about right? I hope so. I haven't finished putting everything else together yet.

Sounds about right.

The tube thing goes into the PCV valve location. I assume it runs into the middle of the UIM so the crankcase gases can be distributed evenly. Getting the front throttle body bracket screws back on can be slightly tricky if you haven't done it already.

Also the instructions I had suggested putting some red loctite on the EGR tube if it didn't fit snug , I didn't, but I not worried.

Hope it turns out well for you.

I put the throttle body on before I seated the manifold. that bracket that holds the throttle body is a major pain in the butt. My EGR tube fit very snug so I didn't neet to locktite it.

Any way looks like I did it correctly. I can see the straw-like tube going to the pcv valve location.

Well I have everything on but the plugs and wires. I got the excess antifreeze out of the spark blug wells by turning the ignition on for 20 seconds or so.

Tomorrow I'll put the plugs and wires on and see what happens. We'll see if I did a good job or not.

I need to remember to put in new antifreeze as well.

So everything is back together. Here is how everything worked.

1. Car was hard to start at first, but it eventually started. ( I assumed it was hard to start because the fuel needed to fill the rail)

2. Once it was first started white smoke came billowing out. (I think this was normal and just burning off excess antifreeze that was still remaining in the system.) I took it for a spin around the block and all white smoke stopped when I got back.

3. The temperature gauge was a little erratic at first. (I guess there might have been a bubble in the system. I added more antifreeze and eventually that evened out.

4. When I first started the car I got a code (check engine) Cyl 6 misfire was the code. I thought at first that I should reseat the ignition wire on the spark plug. But then I thought that it was probably just due to the remaining antifreeze that was being burned off.

5. Took the car for a longer drive 30 minutes. Went on the hwy etc. drove smooth. I shut it down and bought some coffee. When I started it up again it started fine but the engine was a little rough at first (nothing crazy just a little more shake than normal). I got the code (cyl 6 misfire) again at about shortly after that time. But the car smoothed out again and ran nice.

6. Do you think I have a problem with the misfire? or is it still just burning the excess antifreeze out of the system?

Coolant is really bad for the spark plugs, I'd change all 6. Never heard any complaints with NGK tr55's

I did change all 6 and I changed them with NGK's also. I took the car out again tonght and I got that code again.

Coolant is also bad for oxygen sensors ...