Is this an intake gasket leaking? I have coolant in the one pic and the other ones are oil. This is all on the passenger side, the other side is dry.





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Founder of the Greater Cincinnati F-Body Association
Greater Cincinnati F-Body Association
1988 Yellow Trans Am GTA
Click here for photos

[This message has been edited by BrianB (edited September 18, 2001).]

 

I could see coolant coming out there, but not oil. If it isn't a big leak, you could put off changing the intake manifold gaskets, but I wouldn't. If the top looks like that, it could be leaking coolant into the other side. Do you get any white smoke from your tailpipes?

 

The oil around the intake bolts is normal for a SBC. Oil vapor condenses on the exposed threads in teh lifter valley and using the capilary effect it rides it's way to the top of the intake on the bolts. To 'fix' this in the future, coat the threads w/ some THREAD SEALANT (in caps cuz i know some yahoo is gonna advocate silicone, which is about the worst thing to hae on bolt threads next to rust)

And yes i would definitely say you are losing coolant as well. It could be the gasket leaking. It could be the intake itself is porous (doubtful but possible). Or, it could be one of the heater hoses/clamps leaking/spraying onto that area.

Keep a close eye on your oil level, if you see it go up at all that means you are getting coolant in your oil and therefore you CANNOT run the engine ANYMORE. It sounds harsh, but you will destroy your bottom end in very short order if you try driving with any appreciable amount of coolant in the oil.
You may also want to look in the valve covers and make sure you don't already have a milkshake brewing in there. If coolant has already been mixing w/ oil you'll see a frothy milkshake looking funk on top of your heads.


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Ed Maher - Moderator @ The TPI & Carb Boards
92 Z28 Convertible - Quasar blue / Tan top
305 TPI A4 2.73 - 14.8 @ 93.1
Stock except ported plenum and dual cats
-=ICON Motorsports=-

- Definitely prototypes, high powered mutants of some kind. Too weird to live, too cool to die

 

i have the exact same problem with the OIL appearing from no where. and a couple different people said the same thing Ed Maher
did. And i noticed that my was appearing right near one of the bolts.

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- David
88' GTA 5.7L TPI MODS---> air foil, K&N, Shift Kit, 180* therm, TB bypass, Gutted CAT, Flowmaster 80 Series

 

I second Ed. If its not a hose or something, pull the intake and replace the gaskets with a Fel-Pro set, use RTV for the china walls, and buy some liquid thread sealant from versachem or permatex (usually teflon-based, do NOT substitute teflon tape or silicone), for all the intake bolts. I did mine a few months ago and the engine is as clean as a minister's peter. Just my $0.02.

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1990 IROC 350
Mods: Too busy trying to make it run right to mod it.
Airfoil, Dynomax cat-back, MSD coil, 180 t-stat, Bald Eagle tires,
Hypertech fan switch, Accel 23# injectors, Holley module, ported plenum,
Ported Daytona Yellow stock base, Moroso valve covers, other stuff,
Streetdampr, Ruger P95DC, hot wife, new oil filter, !cats, !TBC, !AIR.
18.0 @ 85MPH since I'm one big-a$$ MF
"It's better to have and not need than to need and not have."

 

Any other ideas? I am going to throughly inspect everything again.

 

There are no other explanations or ideas possible. Ed hit the nail on the head.

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1987 GTA L98 MD8
355, TFS Heads, LT4 Hot Cam
My GTA

The Minnesota F-body Club

 

I forgot to mention this but I didn't think it would cause the coolant to leak. I put a pair of those chrome valve cover caps from Mr.Gasket on at the end of August. I don't see that causing the coolant to leak though.