atikovi

Car has 135K miles. Bad news is I can smell that maple syrup aroma from the exhaust that most cars with blown HG’s have. Have to top up with coolant regularly but don’t see any leaks on the ground. Idles a little rough. Put out some white smoke for a minute after starting after not having been driven 4 months. Good news is no water in the oil or vice versa. Temp gauge on the highway pointing at 1/4. Even in town stop and go driving at 85F for over 20 minutes and the gauge is steady at the half way point. Are these engines prone to HG problems? Could it be an intake manifold leak? Would a compression test tell me anything conclusive if it runs fine otherwise?

99GTvert

I don't know about the compression test but on my 99, the driver's side head gasket went bad which leaked coolant on top of the block. The manifold was also cracked at the coolant crossover by where the thermostat would be. Not sure if the two are related.

Just thinking out loud, could the coolant burn off in the cylinder during the combustion process so that it would not leave a trace of watery oil when changing the oil? Could that foul the plugs? Are your COPs the originals?

ctgreddy

get a good light and look down in the valley(under the intake manifold). my old gt would do that, you could smell coolant burning but no visible leaks or anything. then i noticed in the valley I could see some coolant crap, turns out my intake gaskets were leaking and it'd all go in the valley and burn up.

the crossover on the intakes are prown to cracking if you have the plastic version but that should be very visable. these cars are not prown to head gaskets but like any engine it is possible.