I posted a couple months ago about my car leaking coolant from right between the intake manifold and the heads. Well, I popped the hood to visually inspect everything today. What I saw really surprised me... It looks like coolant was sprayed everywhere on the top/front of the engine. It seems to have been there for a day or so. I cleaned up as much I could but the coolant has etched the water pump and various stuff. I cleaned up the area between the head and the intake on the passenger side as much as I could... I started up the engine... ran it for a while. I revved the engine standing in front of my car watching the leak. Nothing leaked... I ran it for a good 5 minutes. I then decided to turn it off. I walked back around to the front and lo and behold. Coolant starts trickling down from between the front of the heads and the intake. It starts leaking after I turn off the engine. Does that mean anything significant? It leaks a little. But it has gotten worst. And I still cannot find what cause that massive spray of coolant over the front of the engine (probally is a leaking waterpump and the fan blew coolant all over). One leak seems to be coming from the top portion where the waterpump and the engine block meets. The second leak is coming from between the heads and the intake manifold. Is a water pump easy to replace? I don't want to be ripped off like I did with the stupid radiator replacement. As far as I know... all you have to do with a water pump replacement is to drain the coolant, unbolt the waterpump, remove it, and bolt in a new waterpump. Is that basically the procedure?

I can try to fix the waterpump leak, but I'm worried about the slow leak from the heads. I don't have the tools or the time to pull the heads to fix that leak. I want to say "Screw it, I'm getting a 350." But I don't want to shell out money for a busted tranny and rear end later on... This sucks!!! Tips anyone?!? Anyone in GA willing to help me find someone to replace my engine or rebuild it? I don't have a clue when it comes to finding someone to do that type of work.



Humvee

 

Water pump replacement is a breeze, especially if you have electric fans. Like you said, drain the coolant, take off the water pump pulley, get the serp belt out of the way, remove the 4 bolts holding on the water pump, make sure the gasket surface on the block is clean, reverse the procedure to install the new pump.

Exactly where is the coolant leaking out between the intake and the head(s)? It is not uncommon for our cars to have a coolant leak from the intake gasket "later in life". IF it is just leaking from the intake gasket, get your hands on a good quality (ROL or Mr. Gasket) intake gasket set and change the intake gaskets. Even if you take your time, you can swap intake gaskets in a weekend...it's not that hard.

If it really is leaking from the actual head gasket, the job becomes more complicated but still not impossible to do in your driveway over a weekend...provided the head(s) and/or deck surface(s) are not warped and it is just a failed gasket.

 

Uhhh, do you actually need us to tell you that if coolant is leaking from between your heads and intake, that it means that your intake gasket is gone?

OK, well, your intake gasket is gone. Replace it.

Replacing the intake gasket doesn't require removing the heads. Just the induction setup (be it TBI, TPI, carb, etc), the distributor, and the intake. Not forgetting all the little junk in the way.