I have been switching over to the AmsOil Anti-Freeze. Has the same claim as the Yellow and Orange stuff, but is still GREEN. And seeing as, even in the newer vehicles, the MFG's says it does not void your warranty. Going to try this in the Blazer when I get it done.

I have used it for several years in my Honda, no problems at all. In fact at 245,000 and still rolling (has had AmsOil in it now for61,000 got it when it had 184,000). Seems to work nice for an Import. Cost a bit more, but guess quality is going to do that to anyone.

Oh and kawidood, I would check with your local GM dealership to ensure you are getting the new Dex-Cool over the old Dex-Cool. They did change some of the chemical composites to it. So if you are going to stick with it, then get it from the dealership. Even though the 97 is out of warranty, if you have an extended warranty from GM on it, then you will want to conform to their regulations per the warranty.

 

Because when you turn on the heater it acts like a second cooling fan. Aids in pulling the heat away from the coolant.

 

So i took it to my mechanic today and he said that he thinks it's a blown intake manifold gasket since he sees oil in the coolant. He wants to charge me $470 for part/labor to the job. I asked him if there's coolant in the oil too, and he said there isn't, so I guess it's a 1 way leak. I'm not sure what exactly an intake manifold is, so I don't know how it's a 1 way leak, but I'll take his word for it I guess.

I couldn't leave it today so I'll have to drive the car all week until i can do it next wednesday, i just hope it doesn't screw up my car too much till then.

 

Does your exhaust smell sweet? Or have a very white-ish appearance?

That's generally what you see/smell when your burning coolant...

 

An intake manifold leak is indeed one way, but not the way that your friendly mechanic has suggested. There are no pressurized oil galleys anywhere near, let alone sealed off by the intake manifold gaskets. The cooling system is under pressure (controlled by the radiator cap) while hot. If a leak is present, coolant will be released out through the leak. The location of the leak would determine where the coolant would go. Possibilities are external leak - coolant leaks to the outside of the engine, internal leak to intake runner - coolant leaks into the intake runner, passes into the cylinder, then gets blown out through the exhaust (sweet smell mentioned above), and last but not least (and by far the worst case), internal leak to the lifter valley - coolant leaks into the lifter valley finding its way down into the oil pan where it dilutes the oil and if left unnoticed for even a short period of time it will trash your bearings. If the coolant finds its way into the oil, TURN THE ENGINE OFF! The coolant will turn the oil into a chocolate milk colored mess and will be very evident by looking at the dipstick.

If there is indeed oil in the coolant, then I would suspect a leak in the engine oil cooler in the driver's side tank of the radiator, but I doubt that is your problem as I doubt that you actually have oil in your coolant. If you did have oil in your coolant, you would have it built up at the radiator cap and depending on how long the problem has been going on, possibly in the overflow bottle. Oil doesn't disolve in water.

 

swart, thanks for the reply. There is indeed oil in the reserve bottle. That's what he said anyway. I personally didn't see it, all I see was brown coolant liquid in the reservoir. He said theradiator cap was rusty and needed to be replaced, but I'm not sure if he found oil in it or not. He alsosaid he checked and didn't see coolant in the oil though. So you're saying that you don't think it's an intake manifold gasket that's leaking?

 

I knew it right from the start lol. Also I know on my cap it cakes up with dried residue from the coolant, don’t let that mistake you to think its rust.

 

Your best bet at this point is to just do a flush and fill, change out the radiator cap. Then run it for a week or so and see if the oil shows up again.

If you do decide to go with the intake gasket, might as well do the head gaskets also. Due to the intake is over 1/2 the time charge to change the head gaskets. This way you will have your valve seats and guides done also. This will aid in giving the engineextended life.

 

my 99 had the sam symptons as your 97. brown coolent, sponge like residue on the rad cap, gurguling sound with the heater core, etc. my problem was the intake gasket, the gasket has ruptured and the oil was leaking into the coolent lines. this causes an oily film and build up inisde all of the cooling lilnes in my truck. the flush would only work for 6 months and again i would get massive build up. the solution was to go down and replace the intake gasket. if the ruptured gasket was noticable at that point then we found the problem. if the gaskt was intact, then we would proceed to the head gasket. let me point out that when you do the head gasket you need to macheine the heads, that's two head by the way, and if they are to warpped to be machened then you need to find new ones or used ones.. this gets very costly. I would look into the intake gasket, 75% of the time it;s this. someting about how the heads where cast may be resulting in this stupid rumpture.. i have pics of my repair and you can see the wear. if someone wants to host the pics i can post them and you will understand. anyways, do the intake gasket, replace the Thermostate, flush the system with GM's rad flush (i think it has acid in it) and clean out every hose in you looking system that you can get a hold of (you need something to aggitate the stuff cuz the oil lining the hosewill not more if not aggitated). then you should be ok.... that is my experiance...

 

Hey guys, it' update time.

So 2 weeks ago I had him replace the intake gasket and flush the system. He showed me the (supposed) gasket and it was indeed ripped/torn. He changed my Dex-Cool to the green stuff (without my permission, which I didn't appreciate) and so far I haven't noticed any oil in the coolant.

However, I still notice a problem. The reason I looked in the coolant to begin with was because a few weeks ago when I started up the car, it would warm up to 210, then go down to 160 which I though was abnormal. So I looked in the coolant and found the oil. I figured that when he flushed the system (and supposedly change the thermostat) that would stop. But my car still does it!! Why??? Does the fact that it's very cold outside (teens without wind-chill) make the car heat itself up higher at first? Or is there something else causing this symptom? Once the car goes back down to 160 it's ok and stays there, but it's wierd that it first goes to 210. Why? Any ideas?