dawson1112

Im wondering if you have a crack in the water jacket of the head itself. Or a blown head gasket.
Those little pits are normal around the coolant ports on the intake and heads. The rtv seals those up really nice.
If it was gonna leak at the coolant ports between the head and intake I would expect it to be leaking out onto the top of the engine not into the exhaust at least not enough to spray coolant out the exhaust.

mattdel

What symptoms are you experiencing that lead you to believe the intake isn't sealing?

dawson1112

He says coolant is blowing out the right bank exhaust. or as he puts it literally spraying out.

mattdel

Ahh I see now.. Well in my experience, you can't get that volume of coolant without a direct feed into the chamber, and intake gaskets aren't a direct feed. Head gaskets are, though. An intake leak that big, sucking in that much coolant, would likely kill the engine before the rev-up even happens.

Cracked head is starting to sound probable, to me.

dawson1112

Yep that's what I was leaning towards also. Water jacket it cracked internally.

AAX86

Well i think it's the intake gasket for a couple reasons.

1. The leak started right when i first removed the manifold

2. There's been orange residue on the gasket between the coolant and intake ports every time i take the intake off and there are orange spots on the intake walls on the head next to where i think it's leaking.


I tested the compression a while ago when it had the leak and it came out really good. All between 160 and 170psi so i don't think it's a cracked head or head gasket.

Of course i'm not ruling out everything else, but it'd have to be a huge coincidence for something else to start leaking right as i remove the intake. So i shouldn't even bother getting it resurfaced? Any other suggestions? How to check if a water jacket is cracked? The car hasn't been on the road in nearly 2 months and i'm running out of ideas.

CPTCO

The machine shop doing the resurface will surely magnaflux them beforehand. That will let you know if you have a cracked head. But for that much volume i would guess head gasket, or possible something warped. Chances are if you get the heads resurfaced, put in a new gasket, etc. you will fix the problem. Unless of course it's the water jacket.

dawson1112

Compression test wont tell you anything because the valves are closed and the leak is above the valves , sure if it was a head gasket compression test would reveal that.
I would expect that if coolant is spraying out the exhaust , you would have a serious miss because it wouldn't be firing very good if at all on that cylinder.
I would install the intake using studs so that it lines up on the head and holds the gasket in place at the same time. I would also use a generous bead of rtv around all the coolant passages on both sides of the gasket. ( Don't just apply a thin film of it there) then make sure you give the rtv ample time to cure before you fire it up. Leave it over night to be completely sure the rtv is set up. Run the engine up to operating temp then retorque the intake while its up to temp. If it continues to spew coolant out the exhaust , allow the engine to cool remove the header from the head, buy or rent a coolant system pressure tester so you can bring the system up to pressure with out running the engine.
If there is a crack in the water jacket between the jacket and exhaust it will present itself out of the exhaust port of the head.
I just cant imagine by removing the intake it would change the surface of the head if it wasn't leaking prior to the removal , I would likely think the intake was once over heated and upon removal it allowed it to warp.