Blown Lower Intake Gasket....CRAP!!!!!

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by BlazerBoyLT98

If it was the head gasket wouldn't you be losing a lot more oil? I had a jeep cherokee with over 200K on it and when the head gasket went I was losing a quart of oil every few days until I replaced it.

Yea, that is what I am thinking too and the engine would overheat as well.

[wolfox]

Playing devil's advocate here now...

Pause and think, before you get totally in a panic:

Water is a good part of combustion process byproducts. How do you know that you are not seeing cumulative effects of moisture being burned off from a relatively slightly more than normally hydroscopic oil just venting vapor? Given the extreme cold temps you brothers see up in the north - could this be your possibility?

It *could* look like coolant when it defrosts since varnishes can be suspended, along with other combustion byproducts that color the water a ruddy-orange/red.

But to be SURE, before you go nuts - leakdown test the cooling system overnight with a rad-cap pressure pump. Pump 'er up to 15-16 PSI and watch the needle. If it sinks, and there is no fluid spilling out over the sides of the block, there is only one place it is going - through your lower intake and into your center cavity where your lifters and balance shaft are. My garage mechanic demonstrated this for me when mine went. I had internal and external leaks with high, and I mean HIGH rate of consumption on the coolant.

[BlazerLT]

Trust me, this is coolant:



Not the whole sample, it is fuel vapor plus water plus oil, but the orange blobs are definitely dexcool.

The recent flush I did must've been the last straw.

[wolfox]

Well, damn...it's got to be spraying right up at your PCV to be Dex...and it looks like Dex on the close-up photo. Ugh... good luck man. What a waste of XD-3 and a filter too. I anguished over that when I had to get my beast drained of its load of Rotella. *sigh*

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by wolfox

Well, damn...it's got to be spraying right up at your PCV to be Dex...and it looks like Dex on the close-up photo. Ugh... good luck man. What a waste of XD-3 and a filter too. I anguished over that when I had to get my beast drained of its load of Rotella. *sigh*

Nah, this dexcool was in vapour form and only settled out after an hour sitting in a warm water bath to get everything separated.

Oh, and no biggie about the oil, it is only CDN$4 per liter so the most I am out total with filter is 20 bucks.

[Cailen]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of pressure would you need to blow a head gasket? I could see a rad flush at too high a pressure wrecking a manifold gasket, but not a head gasket.

And I understand that "it would differ from vehicle to vehicle depending on condition" :P

[wolfox]

Conceivably, it would not take much. Hose pressure can be anywhere from 20~90 PSI depending on where you lived. Cooling systems are made to take 15-16 PSI or so. I never stuck a hose in a radiator hose or cap opening to flush because of this fear of "breaking" something I always held.

Radiator flushing is usually done with the radiator removed from the vehicle - well, it was done this way at every radiator shop I ever stopped and looked into. *shrug*

[Cailen]

Ahh good. This coincides with the information I just found:

Originally Posted by blazee

you system leaks with 16 psi, usually a water hose has around 40 pounds of pressure

[BlazerLT]

Ok, got an update.

This PCV catch can is a MIRACLE in cold weather.

You know the condensation that develops in your engine during when you are driving in cold weather? Well, that is what is in the catch can and that is what is not going back into the engine. This catch can is separating all that fuel and water out of the pcv gas and allowing it to be trapped and not reburned which is fantastic.

This is what I got in 100 miles since the last photos. No visible Dexcool.



No visible dexcool means I am not as scared as I once was. I just did a cooling system flush so I am wondering if that had anything to do with the coolant being in the oil?

The mixture was water, fuel and oil and maybe some coolant but nothing you could actually see. The catch can is scrubbing my oil.

Also, I never thought that maybe the rad is failing and allowing coolant in the oil.

What do you think?

[wolfox]

It is a distinct possibility, as your tranny and oil coolers are in the radiator flow. When I replaced the Radiator in my truck, the connectors for the coolers were good, but the inside of the radiator core was shag nasty looking. Anything that preforated the coolers would also allow migration of the tranny fluid into coolant and vice-versa. I would check your tranny dipstick carefully for signs of coolant before I got off-the-walls stir-crazy. Possibly a seal that holds at operating temps would not hold against flushing pressures if you used either a splice-line flushing tool kit or poked the hose down a rad hose or the rad neck.

I flushed my block and radiator after replacement and running coolant system cleaner with a hose, but - I disconnected both hoses and dribbled the water slowly through the cold engine block after removing the thermostat. I kept dribbling water in for 20 minutes or so until all of the scale and crud blew clean out of the bottom hose (return hose) and nothing but clean water came out. My thermostat sits in a housing with a rubber gasket, so as long as you are careful you can re-use it. But I did not take that chance either and replaced it with a fresh one, it's only like $2 to get.

[Cailen]

I'm glad I've been reading about all this lately and was referred to do the prestone clean rather than the prestone flush.. It was debateable whether it was the mixing of dexcool and prestone green that killed my sunfire or the flush that I did afterwards. I'm starting to think the latter.

[BlazerLT]

Bet you money it was mixing the orange with the green.

Flsuhing will not cause an engine failure.

Plugged up coolant passageways filled with the mixing coolant precipitate will.

[czm400r]

I caught mine early, I ended up with more leaking outside the engine than inside. $537 later I have new gaskets, oil and filter, a new thermostat and an anti freeze flush and fill.

[GirlBear]

So is it the intake gaket head gasket or neither? Should i feel sad for u or releived? lol

[BlazerLT]

Nothing changed yet.

Still some water in the catch can but that is condensation from the cold weather. Better in the catch than in the engine.

No more coolant has entered the catch can at all. I just don't know where it came from.