So, the front driver side of the gasket completely failed, rear passenger side was ready to go as well...

There must have been dexcool in there at some point, the two rear passages were fully blocked with orange crud. I literally had to scoop it out with a spoon LOL

Found alot of dirt and grime along the mating surface edges, an alarming amount of maple keys, and by far the strangest thing I have seen in an engine bay... A pork rib bone, I kid you not LOL, it was lodged just behind the EGR valve! Maybe that's why I always got hungry when I drove it, it was a hint of barbecue scent coming in




Done enough today... Worked last night, and spent 3 hours getting it to this point.

 

Good gawd ....u should've degreased that thing before u ever attempted to take it apart!!!

 

Thought about degreasing, but #1 it's -15C here, -5C in the garage and #2 the gasket was so bad that I didn't want to risk degreaser getting into anything it shouldn't.

I cleaned off the debris before I took the manifold off, so all that was left was coolant sludge. A rag and some carb cleaner will clean it up nicely... Unfortunately in this situation, it isn't my first rodeo lol

 

The rear coolant passages in the heads are blocked by the intake manifold, (coolant does not flow through it). As a result, the coolant doesn't circulate and becomes stagnant. If the coolant isn't flushed regularly, (3 years/36k miles) it will deteriorate and lose its ability to protect the aluminum from corrosion, (intake manifold, heater core & radiator). If the manifold gets pitted too badly, the new gasket will not seal and it will leak again. If you use ethylene glycol, (green) coolant, it will corrode right from the start, and at a faster rate.

 

The rear was pitted bad in the middle of the port, but almost non-existent at the gasket contact area. I put a little RTV in the pitted areas I could see, although there weren't many. The other ports were perfect.

All said and done, took about 6 hours from start to end (actual working time, not accounting warm up breaks, or coffee breaks lol). Not a bad job to do, but tedious...

I just finished getting it all together, tomorrow morning will be the true test if everything went well.
Wish me luck!

 

I'm very happy to report that everything went well. Heater is nice and warm, temperature stays rock solid where it should, and cooling system is all good.

I'll tell you one thing though... it took forever for the thermostat to open up lol I guess -20C will prolong that from happening! My feet are like blocks of ice!