1999 Chevy Venture

[rusty38dei]

Ok, I sure hope yall dont give me the news I am thinking it is going to be. Here goes. Back in August of 05, we had the "INTAKE MANIFOLD GASKET" problem. We tore it all loose and replaced the intake gasket. Well here in the last month it started the same crap again. Which we put the "NEW" gasket they are making fo r these vans in. Well I hardly doubted it was the intake gasket again, so soon. Well yesterday we tore it apart. When we pulled the gaskets out. There was no sign at all that the gasket failed. Being that we had it apart of course we put the new gaskets in. Once it was all back together, I drove it to the filling station to test it out and get some gas. Everything was fine till I got to the Filling station. Once I pulled up to the pump and parked,,, THERE GOES THE TEMP skyrocketing. Just as it had been doing before we redone the gaskets. So i buy my gas drive it back to my father in laws shop. Temp did ok then. we purged the air out of the system, topped it off again with anti freeze. Also when we had it tore apart I suggested we go ahead and replace the T-Stat.. being it was so much easier since we had it tore apart. I seem to think it has to be a head gasket now... But my father in law seems to think its not. And he is a mechanic, more old school mechanic but he is still smarter about these kind of things than I am. He seems to think if it was a Head Gasket that you dont have but like 2 days or so before its gone...Meaning in his words, if it was a Head Gasket you wouldnt be able to drive it anywhere before it ran hot..........Anyway.........IM in a real delima here dont know what it could be.......Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated..........Is there any chance it could be the water pump or something other than a Head Gasket??????

[gmtech79]

Head gasket. I have had vehicles before that you could drive quite awhile before the get hot. When it overheats feel the radiator, if it is cool your heat is going somewhere else, like into a cylinder.

[rusty38dei]

Would you recomend a Head Gasket sealer kinda like the Bars Leak for radiators . I have seen they make something for the head gaskets as well. I would like to try something like that before having to tear it all back apart again. But if I do try something like that, will it cause more problems than it is actually worth.

Also if it was a head gasket wouldnt I have water mixed in my oil......Just curious or maybe its not bad enough for that yet and its just burning off

[ponchonutty]

My guess is that the you needed to have the surface refaced. Using bar's stopleak is only a banaid usually for radiators.

[rusty38dei]

I guess I am not having a radiator problem.....Bars Stop leak Makes a Head Gasket fix also is my question.

[cdru]

It sounds to me like a head gasket problem as well. Do this. Purge as much air out of the system as you can. Turn the engine on and run it until it starts getting hot. Open the air purge valve just after the thermostat housing. If a signifiant amount of air is released, release all the pressure until coolant starts to come out. Close the valve. Repeat the above and see if more air comes out. If it does, then you have air that is being injected into the system which would be indicitive of a head gasket leak.

You may or may not have signs of coolant in your oil. Depending where it was leaking, you may be losing coolant into the combustion chamber. If it's not a large amount, it will burn off as part of cumbustion. You may also have signs such as white smoke or a "sweet" smelling exhaust that also go along with burning off coolant.

They do make stop leak products for head gaskets. However I never recommend them. As mentioned above, it's just putting a bandaid on the problem.