help with lower intake gasket replacement

[juanito115]

Hello all! I just finished replacing the lower intake manifold gasket on my friend's 98 blazer. Me and my friend have done it once on another blazer, so we knew what we were against.

The owner complaint of milky oil and coolant leak from the passenger side. When i took out the dipstick I noticed it was white and automatically thought of the lower intake gasket. Two days later, we were taking everything off.
it took us 3 days to finish it. When we were done and started the truck, we notice a big leak from the passenger side. It did not seem to be coming from the engine, so i thought "heater core". Sure enough it was the heater core. we replaced that and the leak was gone. We started the truck once again but there was a loud ticking. I checked the oil pressure gauge just to find out that there was no oil pressure.

At this point I was thinking maybe the oil pump had picked up something and had been damaged. I checked the oil and it was milky again. I knew we had done something wrong. That same day, we took the manifold off again to check for anything wrong but everything seemed fine. We cleaned the manifold and replaced everything. Just as we were finishing, i looked under the car and i see there's a coolant drip from the oil plug. We took the hose and filled the rad with water. As we filled the rad, more and more coolant began flushing out the engine through the oil plug.

We gave up for that day and have not worked on it since then. I deny to myself that we did something wrong. Im starting to think that there something else wrong with this truck than just a simple lower intake gasket. It might even be a head gasket.

car has 160K+ miles.
no external coolant leaks.
spark plugs show no signs of coolant in the cylinders.
car runs fine, no check engine light, no, misfires.

I'm thinking of pressure-testing the coolant system with the intake off. I would have to find some way to block the ports in the head to do this.

What do you guys think of this? What would you do?
ps. sorry for the long post!

[blazes9395]

Compression test would be in order still. Its kinds hard to do a coolant system pressure test without the intake, so if you did it right, the intake isn't cracked or damaged (over torquing it for instance), then its not the itake gasket anymore.

[Oldsmobile Doctor]

You might want to check the oil cooler in the radiator it may be leaking and water is getting in the oil from there. Also if you have enough water in the oil it will get like grease and not get sucked into the oil pump hence no oil pressure.

[MT-2500]

Did the engine get very hot when intake and hose leaked?
I would be looking into the no oil pressure and ticking/knocking noise.
Was the noise in upper or lower engine.
Drain water and oil and just add oil and new filter and start it just long enough for test.
Check for oil pressure and noise.

If no oil pressure it may be time to hang it up for that engine.

No oil pressure and noise points to rod and main bearigs crankshaft or even cam bearings wiped out and hard telling what else.
If intake gasket looks good.
The water leak in engine may be head gasket or cracked head or block.
But head gaskets is not going to fix oil pressure.
Good luck
And let us know what you find.
MT

[juanito115]

thanks for all the replies first of all.

When I started the engine, the noise was coming from the top of the engine (lifter noise?). Even if the oil was mixed, there should be pressure, right?

Im going to dig into it today to see if I can find anything unusual.

I'm also going to look into the cooler as "Oldsmobile Doctor" suggested.

I will also check the pressure switch to see if there's anything wrong with it. Im going to take the valve covers off to see if there's any traces of oil.

I will let you guys know what the outcome is!!

thanks!!!

[MT-2500]

You are welcome.
As the Old's Doctor said if oil is real thick stuff it may not go threw oil pump.
Like I said drain water and oil and for a test just add new oil and filter without adding water.
Do not run it very long or let it get hot.
Start it up without water just long enough for a test on oil pressure.

If you do not have oil pressure the engine is in bad shape.
No amount of gaskets or work is going to make it live untill you find out about oil pressure problem.
You did not answer the question on how hot it got or how long it was ran low on water before you started on it?
Did it have the noise before you started work on it?
MT

[juanito115]

well guys, I found the problem. Turns out the block is cracked right below the head. I did what I told you guys I was going to do. I blocked the ports and the hoses and then filled the rad with water. At first nothing was showing up but as soon as I started blowing through one of the hoses the water started running out throught the crack. i will take pictures tomorrow and post them up so you guys can see it. I really appreciate all the suggestions!!!

Oh btw, new engine going in next week. I'm in the process of taking the dead one out!!!