Anyone have a coolant leak from the rear of 4.3. my daughter' 95 is leaking and I would like to know if it is common and easy fix or big problem, thanks.

 

If I remember correctly, the only two areas that you can get coolant to leak back there are from either a leaking heater hose or a leaking lower intake manifold gasket. You really need to find the exact area that it is leaking from. You should be able to identify if it is the heater hose or the manifold.

A heater hose is cheap to fix, but the LIM requires significantly more time to disassemble/reassemble costing more $$$.

 

Thanks, I did take a quick look at the heater hoses and they seem dry and are located high on firewall, I guess I'll have to get behind the motor and try to see leak area, I was afraid you would indicate Intake gasket as it looks like a good size job. Does it take a lot of time, effort and know how to do the gasket? thanks again.

 

Alot of time yes. Skill... Well some.

Biggest word of advice I can give you is to roll the motor over to TDC (top dead center) on #1 cylinder (driver's front) before you pull the distributor out. Also before pulling the distributor, make note of where the #1 post is on the distributor body (not cap). Rotate the engine around by hand until the rotor lines up with that mark on the distributor body. This should be TDC on #1 (or close enough). When you pull it out, the rotor will twist (caused by the helical gears on the bottom of the distributor). Have another small peice of tape or a paint pen/marker handy and mark the final position of the rotor after you have it disengaged from the cam gear. The second mark is where you want the rotor when you put the distributor back in so it finally lines up with the 1st mark when fully seated.

You will also want to mark the lower intake where it meets the distributor body with an alignment mark. This is so the timing is set back correctly for the computer.

I don't think I have to say this, but I will anyway. While the distributor is out, DO NOT move the crank (ie. try to start the motor). Best practice is to completely disconnect the battery whenever you are working on a vehicle and especially when working with timed components.

Once you have the distributor out, it's just disassembly, clean off the old gasket material (ensuring not to get anything down in the coolant passages, intake ports, or in the lifter valley. If anything gets down in these areas, you will have to attempt to vacuum them out. I stuff rags down into all of the areas I do not want stuff to get and throw rags down in the lifter valley to catch anything. The lifter valley is fairly easy to vacuum out, but the intake or coolant passages are not.

Make sure all gasket surfaces are well cleaned and free from any oils. Lay the new gaskets down and tack them on with some RTV just so they don't move. You'll most likely need RTV to seal the front and rear of the valve cover (I know my '00 requires it). I also like to smear some RTV around the water jackets, on both sides of the gasket, to ensure a good seal there. A 1/8" to 1/4" bead of RTV on both the front and rear seals should be sufficient to seal them up. I always let them tack up a bit before putting on the lower intake manifold. Put the LIM on as straight down and level as you can and try to get everything lined up while doing so. Then torque everything down.

I would recommend getting a repair manual from your favorite autoparts store as they will have some pictures for you to follow along and will also detail the torque specs and the tightening sequence of the intake bolts.

Good luck and if you need anything more, let us know!

 

Thanks for info

 

Have you thought about freeze plugs? I think there are a couple in back there somewhere.

 

Turns out it was the freeze plug above the starter that rusted out. Thanks for help.