Antifreeze leak in my 96, HELP!!!

[Tripseleven]

Hi all! I have a 96 Tahoe and today I noticed an antifreeze leak under the very front drivers side. The leak seems quite bad. Does anyone know if this would be a hose or the radiator? Any solutions that don't involve a dealer? Any help is appreciated!

[ZR800]

I would check your hoses and radiator itself. When I drained my fluid over the weekend from the petcock on the bottom of the radiator it ended up running out right by the front drivers side corner of the truck.

[Iceyone]

If it's not a hose then I would suspect either the water pump (at best) or the intake manifold gasket (at worst). I'd bet on the water pump. You may notice antifreeze leaking out of the "weep hole" located on the bottom of the water pump.

[tom3]

Seems like I've read somewhere there is a problem with many of these where a heater hose connectes to the intake. An adapter is made of some type of metal that corrodes fast, causes a leak. Parts stores have a steel adapter that fixes the problem. Something to look for anyway.

[GiGsolydCustoms]

ok, i may have your solution. the model years of 1996 and 1997 of the vortec 5.7l (350) had some problems with the intake manifold not getting a proper seal in the gaskets.if i read your post right then you may have this problem, as i had, and many others i know had. if the coolant is leaking from behing the motor or seems directly under the truck then youll need a flash light to see it. warm the engine and look-up and, underneath from behind the front tires. you will want to see as far up as possible at the point where the engine block- heads and intake maniflod meet( kinda like a corner point). if you see fluid leaking then most likely you need to have new gaskets and seals for the intake installed( bought in a gasket kit for under $100.00). if this is the case, the dealer may charge you up to and possibly more than $1700.00 to do so. i hope that in your case its simply a hose.
good luck

[maintainin76]

Originally Posted by GiGsolydCustoms

ok, i may have your solution. the model years of 1996 and 1997 of the vortec 5.7l (350) had some problems with the intake manifold not getting a proper seal in the gaskets.if i read your post right then you may have this problem, as i had, and many others i know had. if the coolant is leaking from behing the motor or seems directly under the truck then youll need a flash light to see it. warm the engine and look-up and, underneath from behind the front tires. you will want to see as far up as possible at the point where the engine block- heads and intake maniflod meet( kinda like a corner point). if you see fluid leaking then most likely you need to have new gaskets and seals for the intake installed( bought in a gasket kit for under $100.00). if this is the case, the dealer may charge you up to and possibly more than $1700.00 to do so. i hope that in your case its simply a hose.
good luck

Its not just 96-97 that have this problem. I recently had to get my intake gasket replaced on my 99 as well.

[Imcgyver]

Mine was the intake gasket on my 96 I changed them twice, it seems to be a warped corner of the intake the second time around it was seggested to me by a mechanic to put ultra copper sealer around the coolent ports of the gasket only, my problem was solved no more leakes but a lot of work to do it.