I have an internal coolant leak and was wondering if anyone could help me out? Is there a way to figure out wether it is the intake manifold gasket or a head gasket or a cracked head or cracked engine block without tearing my engine completely apart? I do not have coolant in my oil but I am burning it. I am hoping it is just the manifold and I am hoping to figure it out without completely tearing down my engine. If I remove the manifold would I be able to tell if that is where the leak is? I know its alot of questions, I want to keep the truck running until I am ready for a V-8 swap. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Oh I guess I should mention it is a 96 4.3 L 4x4 not that it matters a leak is a leak. Thanks.

 

You're burning coolant or oil? Both? If you let the truck get up to temp, do you see any bubbles coming up through the coolant reservoir tank?

 

Im just burning coolant as far as I can tell. No blue smoke and Im not adding oil other than at oil changes. I will have to check for the bubbling. Going to do that now. What will that tell me?

 

Didnt notice any bubbles in the tank. A few other notes: it sometimes hesitates pretty badly when driving which I understand is due to coolant in the combustion chamber and it will set the check engine light off from time to time. Im fortunate that I only drive about 2 miles to work.

 

Run a compression test. That will tell you if you have a bad head gasket and should tell you if you have a cracked head.

It most likely is the intake manifold gasket which is notorious for failing on these trucks. You should be able to find quite a few threads on this topic. There was a very good how-to that was linked to from another site as well as a thread discussing the updated metal framed gaskets that you should use.

 

Will do. Thanks guys for the advice.

 

if you have a blown head gasket or cracked head (depending on where the crack is in the head) you should notice at least 1 of 3 things
1. burning white smoke (blue smoke is oil not coolant)
2. loss in power
3. milky oil

if you get coolant in the combustion chamber it will not burn off there is some technical term for it but i forgot what it is called basically the anti freeze will not turn to vapor like water would at high temperatures and it will collect in the cylinder so when you have the plugs out to do a compression test and notice coolant in a cylinder (or around the plug) or you might get a strong smell of coolant that will tell you a lot as well as the compression test results. im thinking worst case scenario its a cracked head by one of the valves and not by the water passages but id bet on the manifold gasket. if the compression test comes out ok put a vaccum guage on it. remember on a compression test a variance of up to 10% between cylinders is ok anything more and theres your problem.