ok first off id like to say hi to everyone, just joined. i need some help.

last night i was driving around and i smelled coolant. looked under the hood, everythings normal. next thing i noticed is that my temp is way higher then normal so i turned on the vent to see if it would help but insted it fogged up my windshield and started pouring coolant all over the floor mats great.! so now my heatercore blew up. in the morning i ripped the dash apart and replaced the core. all said and done 10 hrs later. now i notice that there was no coolant in the rad, hows that possible? so about a gallon later its topped up. fire it up and runs fine, i notice that my oil pressure is really high, what gives? so i check the oil and its nice and creamy and full to the ****. just my luck . is it a bad head gasket? there isnt a leak outside the truck so i dunno. ive read up on the 4.3 vortec and they say that the intake manifold gasket is a common problem on them, im hoping to god that thats the problem and not the head gasket. some info would be much appreciated before i start tearing apart the truck once again. heres a couple pics of the ride.

 

That sounds like a really significant leak in the infamous intake manifold gasket. It's a project. Google it up and do your homework. Buy the felpro gaskets everybody talks about (rubber on metal), get a 20-200in/lb torque wrench for the manifold bolts, and clean the engine bay if you can.

I'm sure this site has an article, but I found these two guides very helpful when I did mine in February:

http://d-tips.com/General/Articles/a...akearticle.art

http://www.gmfullsize.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76029

It's very straight forward when you have good picture guides. The only trouble I had was finding all the bolts needed to slide the power steering assembly forward while I was under the truck. If I had to do it over, I'd have taken the upper intake off the lower intake before re-assembly and inspected the spider/FPR. Allow at least 2 days because you might have to do some serious cleaning once the intake manifold is on the ground.

Good luck!

 

thanks a lot.! i guess i know what ill be spending my weekend on . should be a lot easier then the heatercore, now that was a bitch haha. well time to hit up the parts store, thanks again for the wonderfull writeup.

 

that writeup helped a ton. thanks a lot. changed the intake manifold gasket and everything is running as it should. forums are definetly the bomb diggity.

 

I'm getting ready to replace my lower intake manifold gasket. I think that the only concern that I actually have is the distributor. I understand to mark the rotor and the shaft to the intake. How troublesome was it to get re-installed?

 

i used a sharpie, worked great, went back into place without any problems. make sure u mark it in 2 places just incase.