96 blazer coolant leak. manifold gasket? help

[LukeBickers]

i have a 96 blazer that has ran great for 120,000 miles. with the exception of the cooling system. that part started to be a nightmare at about 80,000 miles. first the thermostat went out, then the water pump, now something else.

the leak has never made it to the ground or at least i haven't seen any puddles. the other day, i popped the hood to add coolant to the resevoir and i saw puddles and splatters of antifreeze all around the intake manifold. i'm not much of a car buff, but i like to figure these things out for myself. i'm a reasonable poor guy and don't like to get stuck by mechanics, so i need help.

is it the intake manifold gasket that is causing the coolant to leak? I suspected the head gasket, but i haven't experienced any smoking from the exhaust. (with the exception of two single expulsions of fuel smelling clouds of smoke). also, i checked the oil and there is no antifreeze at all in it. the oil is a nice golden brown.

anyone have any other theories? how about any tips on how to go about changing the gasket. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Luke Bickers

[BlazerLT]

I would check the thermostat housing for leaks. Looks like that is where to coolant is coming from.

Can you take some pictures of this?

[Rick Norwood]

You might try taking a garden hose, or go to one of those do it yourself car washes and carefully wash down the top of your engine to remove any puddles of antifreeze, then warm the engine to operating temperature and start looking for leaks.

[LukeBickers]

both great ideas. i'll try them out.

i can't take photos at this precise moment. my car is in the body shop right now. at 11:00pm, a car was stalled with a dead battery in my lane right around a corner. i swerved to miss at the last moment, hit a gravel medium and went down into a 6 foot sloping ditch. so, it's scratched up has a busted window and a few dents to fix before i get to work on it.

I did not notice low coolant levels until after the wreck. maybe something got jarred in the process. I'm not sure.

i'm open to any ideas that you may have.

thanks

[Rick Norwood]

Go to AutoZone and Borrow/Rent a cooling system pressure cap. It is basically a Radiator cap with a small tire pump on it. Fill your system with coolant and with the engine off and cool, pressurize the system with this Pressure Cap. Be careful not to overpressurize the system or you'll blow out something else in your system. Usually 5-10 lbs is enough. Once the system is pressurized, check for leaks all around the engine, including heater hoses and the water pump weeper hole located on the bottom of the water pump. If you have a leak, this should make it spray coolant out without the engine's fan blowing it all over the engine compartment.

[Mikado14]

What Rick is saying is correct except you should pressurize the system at the pressure it is rated for. If you have a 14 lb cap, go to 14. The guage on the unit should be a very accurate guage. If the guage is one of those goofy green, then yellow, then red. Well, you figure it out. Not much good to pressurize a system to it's operating pressure if you can't read the pressure accurately.