Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

[Loochy88]

Changed the oil yesterday and it was looking like chocolate milk. Damn. I had once before noticed coolant pooling on top the upper intake (in the little grooves that run along where the bolts are. Is there any way without pulling the intake to know which gasket is going to need replacing, upper vs lower.

I guess my two questions are:

1.Could blowing the LOWER intake gasket put coolant on top of the intake manifold as i described above....

and

2.Could blowing the UPPER intake put coolant in my engine? I assume it could.

On a side note, I did drive the car a little bit just before I changed the oil. It runs just fine (aside from a little bit of noise that comes from the motor which I believe is the timing chain getting a little loose). The oil pressure was normal (spun bearings should show up as low oil pressure i think), temperature is fine... hopefully the few times I drove it with collant contaminated oil didnt do any permanent damage. Time will tell.

Also, i suppose it could be head gaskets, but I wouldn't think that would put coolant on top of the intake either.

[ssms5411]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

My guess would be yes to both, just have to check it out, maybe a compression test to see if it is a head gasket then you can look at your intakes if you rule out the head gaskets.

[lookout4theyeti]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

I had to have both my upper and lower intake manifold gaskets replaced. The problem didn't seem to big right away, but after just a bit of driving (getting it to the dealership), the temp would skyrocket then go back to normal over and over, and by the time I got it there it was stuck in the hot. I'm sure you've read but theres class action lawsuits over this. Its cause the dexcool eats away at the gaskets. Big pita

[Loochy88]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

i did see the thing on the lawsuit. does me no good since you needed to file a claim by last october, and i would have gotten a whopping 50 dollars back. yay.

anyway, i got a little frusterated today and started taking the car apart. i have most everything off but the fuel lines and valve covers (which im not planning on removing unless i have to in order to get to the lower intake). cant do a compression test since the car needs to be warm in order to get an accurate reading on that (or so i've been told). i figured i'd just do the intake gaskets and see where that gets me. if they both look ok, i guess ill move on to the head gaskets. yuck.

[Loochy88]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

lower manifold gaskets are shot to hell. have the lower and obviously upper intake off. valve covers still on. cant really tell much about the head gaskets just by looking at them from here. any thing i should be looking for? im probably just going to replace the lower and upper intake gasket and put it all back together and see what happens.

[T-Mill]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

yea, after you put it together, run some cheap oil in it for a short time, and then change it again, hopefully get more of any residual coolant and "mud" out of the oiling system

[ne0hisda0ne]

Re: Blown intake gaskets, coolant in oil, symptoms/signs

I so remember those images from my own tear down... *sigh* good times...